AN HISTOI^IGAIi I^EVIBW. 



ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST 



AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS. 



NOVBMBBr^ Z, 1889. 



AMHERST, MASS.: 
PRESS OF THE AMHERST RECORD. 

1890. 



GONH^ENIPS. 



Page. 

Preface, 5 

Historical Address l)y Kev. G. S. Dickermau, 9 

Presentation of Portraits by Jolm II. WaslilnuMi 

and tlieir Acceptance by Uev. I). W. Marsh, D. D.. 34 

Address. The First and Second Pastors, by Eev. Chas. H. Williams. 36 

Address. The Relation of the Chnrch to the Educational Institutions 

of Amherst, by Prof. Wm. S. Tyler, D. D., LL.D-, 43 

Address. Representative Men of the Parish, Church Buildings and 

Finances, by W. A. Dickinson. 50 

Address. The Material Progress of Amherst, by Henry F. Hills, (37 

Reminiscences of Former Pastors : 

Paper by Rev. Aaron M. Colton, 71 

Paper by Rev. E. S. Dwight, D. D., 78 

Letter by Rev. Henry L. Hubbell, D. D., 83 

Address by Rev. Jonathan L. Jenkins, D. P., 86 

Letter by Rev. F. F. Emerson, 88 

Address by Rev. E. P. Blodgett, 91 

Correspondence, 94 

Hymn, by Dr. V. W. Leach, 99 

Old Documents, 100 

Appendix to Historical Address : 

A. Ancestry and Families of the Founders, 103 

B. Petition against Building Two Meeting Houses, 112 

C. Origin of the Second Chnrch and Parish. 117 
Statistical Tables, 122 



ILLUSTI^AiriONS. 



Page. 
'' Church and Manse, Frontispiece 

^ Portrait of Dr. Parsons. 34 

Portrait of Mrs. Parsons, 36 

Second Meetinu' House and Old Parsons House, 53 

Third Meeting House, 57 



PI^EPAGE. 



At a meeting of the Parish connected with the First Church of 
Amherst, February 11, 18<sy, the Pastor, Rev. G. S. Dickerman, made 
an informal presentation of the subject of commemorating in a suitable 
manner the Origin of the Church at the approaching One Hundred and 
Fiftieth Anniversary. It was thereupon voted to make suitable 
arrangements for the Celebration and Messrs. L. D. Hills, George 
Cutler and H. D. Fearing were appointed to nominate such Committees 
as they should think advisable and report at the Annual Meeting of 
the Parish in March. 

At a meeting of the Church, similar action was taken and a Com- 
mittee was appointed and authorized to cooperate with that of the 
Parish. By them committees were nominated, and these were chosen 
at the Parish INIeetiug, March 12, 1889, and were accepted by the 
Church. After certain moditicatious they stood as follows : 

Historic Research. Entertainment. 

Rev. G. S. Dickerman, P. E. Irish, 

Oliver D. Hunt, J. A. Rawson, 

James I. Cooper, E. D. Marsh. 

Invitations. Decorations. 

George Montai^ue, Morris Kingman, 

Henry F. Hills, Miss Fannie P. Cutler, 

Wm. AV. Hunt, Miss Carrie T. Hunt. 

Anniversary Exercises. Portraits and Antiques. 

Rev. G. S Dickerman, Rev. D. W. Marsh, 

Flavel Gaylord, George Graves. 
Wolcott Hamlin, 

These Committees subsequently met for joint action, appointed 
additional Committees as seemed advisable and made the necessary 
preparation for the celebration. 



6 

ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



THURSDAY MORNING, 9-30 O'CLOCK. 

1. Organ Prelude. 

2. Anthem. 

3. Reading of Scriptures, Psalm cxxii. 

4. Hybin. Tune " Dundee." 

" Let children hear the mighty deeds, 
Whicli God performed of old; 
Which ill our younger years we saw, 
And whicli our fathers told. 

Our lips shall tell them to our sons, 
And they again to theirs, 
That generations yet unborn 
May teach them to their heirs. " 

5. Reading of the Ancient Covenant of the Church, 

6. Lord's Supper. 

Rev. Rowland Ayres, D. />., Rev. Chas. /I. Williams. 

7. Hymn 820. " Let Saints below in concert sing." 

8. Historical Address, - - Rev. G. «S'. Dickerman. 

9. Hymn 329. " Coronation." 

10. The First and Second Pastors, Rev. Chas. H. Williams. 

11. Hymn 10()0. " O God, beueatli thy guiding hand." 

Benediction. 

Collation. 

THURSDAY AFTERNOON, 1-30 O'CLOCK. 

1. Organ Prelude. 

2. Te Deum. 

3. Prayer. Rev. J. L. Jeiildns, D. D. 

4. Response. 

5. The Relations of the Church to the Educational Institu- 

tions OF Amherst, Prof. Wm. S. Tyler, D. i)., LL. D. 

(I. Hymn. Composed by Dr. \'. W. Leacli. 



7 

7. Representative Men of the Parish, Church Buildings and 

Finance, ... Wm. A. Dickinson, Esq. 

8. Reminiscences, 

Rev. Aaron M. Cohon, Rev. E. S. Dioight, D. D. 

9. The Mateuial Progress of Amherst, Mr. Henry F. Hills. 
10. Hymn TAT. "Oh, where ure kuigs and empires now." 

Benediction. 

THURSDAY EVENING;, 7 O'CLOCK. 

1. Organ Prelude. 

2. Anthem. 

3. Address, Rev. J. L. Jenkins, D. D. 

4. Reading of Lkitkus from Rev. F. F. Emerson and Others. 

5. Address, Rev. E. P. Blodgett. 

6. Prayer, Rev. Chas. S. Nash. 

7. Hymn 1014. " Clirist is coming ! Let creation " 

Benediction. 

The following- is from an account of the Anniversaiy in the Hamp- 
shire Gazette of November 12, 1881) : 

" The day was bright and sunn}', an ideal Indian summer day, and 
the occasion brought together a large number from the four villages 
of Amherst, and from Hadley and other towns around. In the 
audience were seen many aged people, some of Avhom could cover with 
their memory half the space of time under review. 

At the close of the historical address a pleasant surprise occurred, 
Mr. John H. Washburn of New York, a son of Rev. Royal Washburn 
a former pastor, and a descendant, through his mother, of the first 
and second pastors, was introduced, and in graceful words presented 
to the church the framed portraits of his grandfather and grand- 
mother Rev. Dr. David Parsons and wife. Rev. Dr. Marsh of 
Amherst accepted the portraits on behalf of the church. 

At noon by the blowing of the self-same conch-shell that used to 
summon the people to church, the assembly was called to dinner, 
prepared by the ladies in the hall below. The Divine Blessing was 
invoked by Rev. Dr. J. ]VI. Greene of Low^ell. After which more 
than three hundred people were sumptuously feasted with good things. 



At the evening exercises a crowded audience assembled, the cahn, 
moonlight evening being favorable for both driving and walking. 
After the opening anthem, finely sung by the choir, Rev. Dr. Jenkins, 
pastor of the church from '(36 to '76, spoke in his usual bright and 
interesting manner, giving recollections of his pastorate, closing with 
a panegyric on the church, the church of New P'.ngland, as being the 
conservator of all that is best and noblest in the state — a field of 
action for the best talent and executive abilit}" of all. 

Letters of regret were read from many who were invited to be 
present, among them J. H. Sweetser of New York, Mrs. Electa S. 
Boltwood of Kansas, Rev. Dr. G. L. Walker of Hartford, Rev. O. 
R. Kingsbur}^, Dr. J. C. Oreenough and Mrs. Greeuough of Westtield, 
Dr. E. S. Dwight was unable to be present, but sent an excellent 
letter, which was read by Rev. Charles 8. Nash. Rev. Eorrest F. 
P^merson of Newport, pastor from '80 to '83, expected until the last 
moment to be present, but pastoral duties that he did not feel at 
liberty to put aside, prevented his coming. His paper was read by 
Rev. Dr. Marsh. 

Quite a collection of old and modern portraits and photographs of 
pastors and prominent men and women of the church and town, were 
displayed in the lecture room of the church. Some interesting relics 
were also shown, such as ancient books, manuscript sermons of the 
older pastors, musical instruments used in the choir fifty years ago, 
the manacles used to confine the famous Stephen Ijurroughs, etc. 
Among the portraits were those of Rev. Daniel Clark, Dea. P^leazer 
Gaylord and wife, Pres. Hitchcock, Edward Dickinson, Leonard 
Hills, Dea. Ayres, 8. C. Carter, Aaron Belden. There were excellent 
photographs of Rev. H. Kingsbury, Rev. Dr. IIubl)ell, Dea. Sweet- 
ser and wife, Dr. (iridle}'. Dr. Smith, Miss P^sther Cutler and others. 

A word of ju-aise ought to be spoken in regard to the music interspers- 
ed throughout the exercises. Much time and thought had been spent 
upon the preparation of suitable pieces, and the clioir and their leader 
Mrs. Sanderson, won well-deserved laurels in their execution, espec- 
ially in theT'e Deum^ the Dona Nobis, and the time-honored " Strike 
the Cymbal." A quartette from the Agricultural College rendered the 
chant " Remember now tliy Creator" in a most accui'ate and very 
impi'essive manner. The oni' hundi'cd and lifticth anniversary is over 
and now the church takes its strong and steadfast march along 
towards its two hundredth vear." 



HISriTOI^IGALi ADDI^ESS. 



By G. S. DTCKERMAN, Pastor. 



Occasions similar to this on which we meet are growing familiar. 
A trait of our times is love of the retrospect with endeavor to repro- 
duce the life of a former period. 

The past interests us as showing the fotmtam head of streams that 
are flowing in the present ; and often we are led to wonder at the 
depth and majesty of these streams as we trace them back to a quiet, 
secluded spring. 

We are interested, too, in the life of the past. It is so unlike that 
of the present, not only in outward circumstances, but in many essen- 
tial features, in modes of thinking, in ideas of dut}^ in the sentiment 
and practice which prevailed. This gives a peculiar zest to studies 
which might otht^rwise seem dull and covers them with an air almost 
of romance. 

But such a review is more than entertaining : it can teach us much. 
There are lessons here to make us wise and strong, to raise our cour- 
age and kindle our ardor. For how can we call to mind the deeds of 
those who have gone before us and be uumoved? How can we reflect 
on their high purpose, their fidelity to conviction, their steadfast 
endurance in the way they believed to be right, with the far-reaching 
results that have ensued, and not be made truer and better for the 
work we have to perform? 

In our old record book the first entry is, " Nov'"" 1735, 1 Began my 
Ministry' at Hadiey." Then immediately below we read " Nov'"^ 7. 
1731), David Parsons Jun. was ordained Pastor of the Chh of Christ 
in Iladley 3*^ Precinct, which was gathered on that Day & consisted 
of the Persons hereafter mentioned : " 
2 



10 

David Parsous, Pastoi- John Cowls 

Nath^' Kellogg Aaron Smith 

John Ingram Ebeuezer Kellogg 

Sam"' Hawle}' Jonathan Smith 

Eleazer Mattuu Nath"^ Smith 

John Nash Joseph Clar}' 

Pelatiah Smith Jonathan Cowls & 

P^benezer Dickinson Kichard Chauncey."' 

Here are the names of sixteen men. The youngest of these was 
the pastor whose age was twenty-seven and who was as yet unmarried. 
The other fifteen were all householders and fathers of children, their 
ages ranging from thirty-fonr to seventy-eight. 

The method of founding a church through a band of chosen men 
had prevailed from the beginning of the New England settlements. 
In earlier times the number had been fixed at seven and tliese Avere 
named pillars in allusion to the text of Provei'bs, " Wisdom hath 
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars." So the 
churches at New Haven, Northampton and Westfield were organized 
and probably most of those belonging to that period, though in many 
cases no record is left of the event. But the usage with respect to 
number was gradually modified to suit the exigency, and in the orga- 
nization of this church the founders seem to have included all the men, 
with a single exception, who intended to become members. 

Having started in this manner, the next step was to receive into 
tlie body such other Christians as might be ready to join them. This 
was done on the first of January following, when twentj'-eight persons 
" were added by recommendation from other churches." 

One of these was David Smith, a man somewhat younger than any 
of the founders but the pastor, and perhaps unmarried though, he 
seems to have taken his wife not far from this tinu". These reasons 
may account for his not being among the founders. 

Besides him were twenty-seven women, the mothers, wives and 
sisters of the men I have named. Among tliem were three recently 
bereaved widows whose names remind us of Zechariali Field, Samuel 
Boltwood anil John Ingram Jr., who had come with their f:imilies to 
the settlement and had raUen tluis early bi'fori' the exposures incident 
to life in a new country. 

Zechariah Field had V)e('n a h'adiug man and among tlu> foremost 
in the movement for a new precinct and tlie I'stablislanent of a church. 
His nanu^ headed tile second petition to the (Jeneral Court lor this 



11 

object, and wiu'ii thv petition was granted, the first meeting of the 
precinct was held at his house. Samuel BoltAvood had also been prom- 
inent iu the movement and was one of the earliest officers of the 
precinct, while j^ouug John Ingram was so related to a mrmber of 
the families that his death, like that of the other two, must have 
caused universal mourning. 

The elder John Ingram was the patriarch of the settlement, his age 
being seventy-eight, and, besides his son, he had four daughters who 
were wives of founders and themselves members of the church. His 
own wife was the sister of Ebenezer Dickinson, and the widow of 
his son was a daughter of Samuel Boltwood. 

Another who was advanced iu life was Nathaniel Kellogg, tlien in 
his seventieth year. His wife was the sister of Samuel and Solomon 
Boltwood. One of his sons had married Elizabeth Ingram and a 
daughter was the wife of Ebenezer Dickinson. 

Of the children of Zechariah Field two were married to Samuel and 
Joseph Hawley, another to Moses AVarner, and his son John to a 
daughter of Samuel Boltwood. 

In this way all the families of the settlement were closely interre- 
lated.* 

In the list of Christian women there are six whose husbands were 
not in the church. Part of these afterwards had the joy of seeing 
their husbands take the covenant and enter into '■'full conununion." 

The whole number of families represented in the church by either 
husband or wife was twenty-four. There were several others in the 
settlement besides these — in all about thirty families. 

A remarkably full record of these old families is to be found in 
Judd's Histor}^ of Hadle}'^ to which I am greatly indebted for the 
statements I here present. 

I have intimated that the church was composed of adult members. 
There were only three or four besides the pastor who were unmarried, 
and only two of these who could be called, according to our way 
of speaking, young people. These two were Elizabeth Smith and 
Ruth Boltwood, maidens of seventeen. But let no one suppose that 
there was a lack of the youthful element in this community or in the 
congregations that gathered here for worship. I find the number of 
sons and daughters in this group of families to have been over 
one hundred and ninety, or an average of six to each household. I do 
not mean by this that there were so many at the time the church was 
organized, or at any t)ne time. Some died early, some were born at 

*Appendix A. 



12 

a later date, while a uuinbei- were grown to maturity. But U'aviug 
out these, a tine company remains of children and youth, not less 
than eighty or ninety as I count them, of all sizes from the babe in 
his cradle to youth and maidens whose lives were opening into man- 
hood and womanhood. And these, we ma}^ be sure, played no small 
part in this neAV enterprise. Then as now parents were intent on the 
welfare of their children, and their first thought was of their religious 
training. 

It is contained in the records that four days after the church was 
started, the pastor l)aptized .Jonathan, the son of Jonathan and Sarah 
Cowls, and that in less than a month later, he baptized three more 
children presented by their parents. There is not a little meaning in 
this, and as you read on down the long list of five hundred and eighty- 
three baptisms, nearly all of children, in that one pastorate, and then 
continue with the still longer list of the second pastorate, the meaning 
becomes more impressive with every added name. During this 
eighty years ministry of father and son there were baptized upwards 
of fourteen hundred persons (1447), of whom not less than thirteen 
hundred were children upon whom their parents sought the blessings 
of the Abrahamic covenant. 

This speaks volumes for the family life of the place. The family 
filled the people's minds. And the life of each home was the stronger 
and deeper for the whole community's being so much like a single 
family, so bound together in ties of kinship. 

There were no foreigners here then, and there were few Avho hail 
not been all their life in this particular society. We can hardly 
comprehend this at the present day, when our conununities are full 
of strangers from various parts of the world : especially is it hard to 
understand of a frontier settlement gathered in the woods. 

But let us go back a step. Ask whence these thirty families 
came. We find they were from old Hadley village and from Ilattield, 
and there they belonged to a society Avliose kinships and common 
interests were the same as we have seen here, only on a larger scale. 
Hadley and Hatfield were almost like one conmumity, and they had 
kept on their way together from the time of their connnon origin 
eighty years before. 

They had been planted as follows. The colony of Hartford, which 
Thomas Hooker had founded with the company he led through the 
wilderness from Dorchester, was in discord. Their great leader 
had died, and tlie church to whicii he had ministered was rent 



13 

into two factions lieatU'd on tlie ont^ side by tlie " tv:iciiiu<i' older," 
Rev. Samuel Stone, and on the other by the " ruling ekler," 
William (ioodwin. A detailed account of this (piarrel is given 
by Dr. AValker in his History of the First Churc/i m Hartford. I need 
only say that the strife was intensely bitter, and continued for some 
five or six years. The most strenuous efforts for reconciliation were 
made by the neighboring churches, and by thost' more distant in the 
colonies of New Haven and Massachusetts ; but they failed to heal 
the schism. AVilliam (loodwin and those attached to his party under- 
took to withdraw and unite with the clunx-h in Wetherstield. This 
was not sanctioned by the council called in the case. Nor did any 
measures avail, till it was tinall}^ decided that the minority should 
leave Hartford and establish a new settlement. 

It was this minority which removed to our innnediate neighborhood 
and founded the settlement of Hadley and Hatfield. They built on 
both sides of the river, as had been done in Hartford, and hence in 
time became two communities. 

This immigration took place in 165'J, and with it the settlement 
began. It was not, however, a wholly unanticipated event. Six 
3'ears before, a number of men from Windsor, Hartford and Spring- 
field petitioned the General Court to grant them a plantation at 
Nonotuck, — the Indian name for the Connecticut \"alley north and 
west of the mountains. Following this was a purchase of the land 
from the Indians and the location of two prospective plantations, 
one on either side of the river. Then came the settlement of North- 
ampton by colonists from Springfield and Windsor in 1().")4. But 
there was a pause in the movement from Hartford till the schism in 
the church precipitated it and matle it much more extensive than it 
would otherwise have been. Hence, if there w^as at the end impulse 
and swift action, it was only after 3'^ears of careful planning. 

Notice further, that Wetherstield was identified with Hartford, and 
that Windsor naturally joined in the emigration. The Goodwin 
faction had found sympathy in the Wethersfield church and recruits 
were easily enlisted there. Also the journey to the new country lay 
through Windsor and a number from that place were read}'^ to join 
the company. 

It would seem that the new colony in separating from the one at 
Hartford did not become estranged from the parent. Kather the 
bitterness of the old strife ceased from this hour. 'I'he settlers had 
gone into a new wilderness to meet hardships, to brave] dangers, and 



14 

some of them to die by the hand of the savage. How could any 
f eelmgs be cherished but those of kindness and mutual interest ! So 
it came to pass that relations of peculiar intimacy were sustained 
between the Connecticut towns and the dwellers in Hadley and 
Hatfield. Old acquaintanceships were continued. Social and busi- 
ness interchanges were as frequent as circumstance would allow. 
The men of the two regions served together in the Indian wars and 
their wives bore in mutual sympathy their sorrows and their joys. 
Brothers and sisters and cousins visited from one place to the other, 
and marriages back and forth were continually adding new family 
ties to those already existing. It was only four years after the emi- 
gration that the Rev. Samuel Stone's daughter, Rebekah, came with 
her husband, Timothy Nash, to join the Hadley colony. And it may 
be proper, in this connection, to note that among the original members 
of our church there sat side by side one who was a descendant of 
Rev. Sanuiel Stone (John Nash) and two others who were descended 
from Elder William (ioodwin (David Smith and Mrs. Sarah Cowls). 

The close connection with these Connecticut towns continued long. 
David Smith, that member of this church Avho was married near the 
time of the organization, went to Wethersfield for his wife. A few 
months later the pastor also went to Wethersfield and brought thence 
Eunice Wells to be the joy of his house. And in due time his son, 
the second pastor, betook himself also to Wethersfield and brought 
thence another rare jewel in the person of Harriet Williams. 

And let me call your attention to a few facts that come out in an 
examination of those earliest families of Amherst. It is possible to 
trace most of their lines of descent back to the first settlements in 
New p]ngland. Thus we find that every one of the original members 
of this church was descended from some progenitor who came from 
Hartford or the adjoining towns.* We find, moreover, that tlu' 
admixture with families from elsewhere is very small. We should 
surely suppose that Spriuglield fnmilies would have become greatly 
mingled with them, especially as tli:it Springfield colony at Northampton 
was so near a neighbor. But it was otherwise. Of those lirst colo- 
nists from whom these founders sprung, tlu'ee out of every four, or 
more tluui forty in all, whose names are known, were of thesi- 
Connecti(nit towns. A few wei-e of Springfield, while the rest were 
of New Haven, Stratford and live or six towns of Massachusetts Uiiy, 
with only one or two to each place. This shows that, witli rnrr 
exceptions, the marriages during that whole period had kept within 

♦Appendix A. 



15 

the circle of the families that were neighbors before the exodus to 
Hadley. And these families, we know were of those immigrants who 
came from England to Massachusetts at the first settlement of the 
country. The Hartford church was organized at Newtown, now 
Cambridge, Mass., in or probably before Ifi.S;) and removed in K!;')!') 
to their permanent settlement. The Windsor churcli was organized 
at Plymouth, Eugland, in 1029 and came thence in a bod}^ to 
Dorchester where they remained till about the time of the immigration 
to Hartford, when they also removed. The Wethersfield church was 
organized at Watertown a few months later than the Windsor church 
and took the line of march through the wilderness in the same year. 
These three churches contributed in nearly equal proportions the 
elements of which the Amherst community was composed, though 
the larger part was from Hartford. 

It was just about a hundred years after those innnigrations from 
the vicinity of Boston to the Connecticut Valley, that this settlement 
was begun. What a centennial our founders might have celebrated 
at that very hour, if it had been the custom to indulge in such 
festivities ! 

That had been an eventful century. But looking back upon it from 
the point of view at which we stand it seems like one of slow progress. 
The settlers in this region liad been confronted from the beginning 
with one ever present danger, and a danger which remained for a score 
of years after tliis church was founded. When those families set out 
from Hartford for these Hadley meadows they little thought what a 
terror was to hang over their homes from the Indians, or how many 
lives were to be sacrificed in wars and massacres. This terror kept 
back the growth of the settlements. It made the people gather closel}' 
together in villages and forbade their reaching out, as in other parts 
of New England, to build their scattered farm-houses and occupy the 
country. So, after fifty years, the only towns in all this part of the 
state besides Hadley and Hatfield, were Springfield, Westfield, 
Northampton and Deerfield, and the only churclies were the six 
belonging to these towns. 

And in the later period of the settlement of this place, we liud that 
the advance had quickened but little. 'i'liere were small frontier 
communities at Smiderland, Northfield, Belchertown, South Hadley 
and Blandford, but these were only in their beginnings and were 
looked upon as doubtful experiments. Western Massaciiusetts, with 
the exception of the C'onnecticut valley and Westlit'hl, was still a 
" sreat aud terrihle wilderness." 



16 

One of our elderly people tells me it is a tradition in her family that 
when the early settlers came from Hadley to this region of the Third 
Precinct their friends thought they should never see them again. 
They expected nothing better than that they would fall by the Indian's 
hatchet, or be lost in the swamps and forests. So keen was their 
dread of any remoteness from the village centers. 

Yet notwithstanding the long delay in occupying tlie land what a 
story was that of the hundred years then closing ! We can imagine 
the kind of tales that were told about the hearth-stone in those first 
log cabins of this settlement. liooks were rare then and other 
sources of entertainment familiar to us were unknown. We may 
therefore, suppose that reminiscences engaged their leisure hours to 
an extent that is now unusual. Fathers and mothers kept in vivid 
remembrance the scenes in which they had borne a part and told them 
often to their children and grandchildren, who in turn rehearsed them 
to another generation. Doubtless in all these homes there was 
narrated many a story of famil}' experiences that spanned the whole 
century and carried the listening group back along the family pilgri- 
mage to the voyage across the Atlantic and even bej'^ond, to ancestral 
homes in England. 

Suppose ourselves, for example, in the cabin of Dr. Nathaniel 
Smith which stood where the house of Mr. John White now is, just 
over College Hill. We will choose an evening when Mrs. Smith's 
parents are there, the aged John Ingram and his wife Mehitable 
Dickinson. In the family are two small children Dorothy and 
Rebecca. All are grouped about the fire-place with its blazing logs, 
in the manner of those old times, when the little girl at her grand- 
father's knee calls for a story. The patriarch's face lights up with an 
approving smile, and he asks what sort of a story it shall be. As 
children are apt to do in such a case, they ask for a tale of his child- 
hood. And we can imagine the way the venerable man begins, 
reminding them that he was born only two years after the settlement 
of Hadley, tiiat his fatlier was then a young man under twenty years 
of age, and tliat liis grandfather (Jardner was but forty-six. And 
then he may have told how that grandfather had lived to be eighty- 
one years ohl and luul often talked to him as he was now talking to 
them, telling about his early home in England and of the oppressions 
which led so many of tln' noblest spirits of tlie age to leave their 
native land to plant colonies in America, telling of the voyage across 
the Atlantic, too, and of the vicissitudes which followed in years full 



17 

of thrilliiio- events, till the new home was finally located in Hadley. 
What materials long since lost that settler of Amherst must have had 
at his eonnnand out of which to make a narrative of the beginnings 
of New England ! And then of his own times ! of King Philip's 
war, of the massacre at Bloody Brook, of the Indian attacks on 
Hadley and Hatfield and Deerfield ! He himself could recall all these 
events and tell many tales of personal encounters witli the Indians, 
and probably of hairbreadth escapes. 

The grandmother, too, could add her incidents, recounting the 
stories in her own family of the journey through the wilderness to 
Wethersfield, and thence to Hadley. She could tell of the alarms in 
the village among the women and children, when the men had been 
away in the Indian wars. 

And then the Doctor had his tales also to tell — among others of the 
strange sickness and death of his grandfather, the good Ueacou Philip 
Smith who, according to Cotton Mather, was "murdered with an 
hideous witchcraft." 

Reminiscences like these were the natural entertainment of family 
gatherings and of the leisure hour in all those homes. 

And in some there were tales to tell of tragic events which had 
befallen the family itself. In the home of Samuel Ilawley, a grandson 
kept in remembrance the heroic deeds of "• the brave Capt. Marshall 
who fell in the Narragansett fight." In five or six other homes there 
were children and grandchildren of Sergeant Samuel Boltwood famous 
for his bravery and strength, and they could narrate with pride his 
exploits ai^ how he was slain at Deertield. And finally in the famil}' 
of Zechariah Field, the son and daughters could tell of their great uncle 
Samuel and their uncle Ebenezer who had be^n slain, one at Hatfield 
and the other at Deerfield, by the same dreaded enemy out of the 
wilderness. 

By such tales, looking back over the sufferings and courageous 
endurance of those who had gone before them, we may be sure, the 
founders of this church and of this community strengthened themselves 
for the work they had taken in hand. Behind them was a whole 
centui'y of heroism, and with a like heroic spirit they were ]iivpared 
to meet whatever duties might fall to their lot. 

But, all unbeknown to them, a new era was <)ptming,and a tlitt'erenl 
field was to be offered in which to exercise their [)Owers and employ 
the strength that had come to them frcnn sires of so noble a mould. 
The Indians were to vanish. Tlie wildi'i'ness was to be cultivated till 



18 

it should blossom as the rose. A great people was speedily to Ite 
evolved out of materials tlieii niatiiring l)nt as yet nncrystalized. 
And then should coine the problems of social organization and of the 
state that was to be — religious problems, political problems, educa- 
tional problems, industrial problems, problems of :dl science and of 
all philosophy. 

We can see now that the experiences of that first hundred years was 
a discipline singularly adapted to prepare the people of this valley, as 
of all the colonies on the Atlantic coast, for the great duties tliat were 
awaiting them. 

Of the i)art pei'formed l)y tlie children of these valley settlers little 
needs to be said. We have only to remember what Massachusetts 
has done for the nation and what this valley has done for Massachu- 
setts to understand that their part has not been altogether unworthy 
of their fathers. 

From this siu'vey of movements and conditions anterior to the 
settlement of this place let us now pass to the circumstances imme- 
diately connected with the event we celebrate. 

The period in which this church had its beginning is conspicuous in 
the ecclesiastical history of New England as the period of the Great 
Atvulxening. The first signs of this awakening were shown in the 
immediate vicinity of this place at Northampton. Jonathan Edwai'ds 
had become greatl}" alarmed at the ])revailing worldliness and 
disorderly condition of the churches and was moved to direct his 
powerful preaching to a thorough reformation. Kesults quickly 
appeared. In December, 1734, a number of persons in his congre- 
gation, as he says, " Avere to all appearance, savingly converted, and 
some of them wrought upon in a remarkable mannt-r." Through the 
winter the movement d('e])cned and Ix'came general throughout tiie 
parish. " An earnest concern about tlie great things of religion and 
the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town and among 
persons of all degrees and all ages. They were wont vim'v often to 
meet together in ])rivate houses for religious purposes ; :ind such 
meetings were wont greatly to be thronged. Souls did, ;is it were, 
come by flocks to Jesus Clu-ist. From day to day. foi- nuuiy months 
together, might be seen evident instnnces of sinners h)-ough1 out of 
darkness into marvellous light." 

All this was wonderful, and it seemed the more wonderful bccnnsc 
revivals had become unusuid. A profound imi)ression was produced 
on neigliboring chur<*lies. " In Mnrcii. IT.'!."*, tiie revivid bcg:in to be 



19 

geiieitil iu ISuutli Hudley, ami aljout the same time in SullieUl. It 
next appeared in Sunderland, Deeriield and Hatfield ; and afterward 
at West Springfield, Long ^Meadow and Enfield ; and then in Iladley 
Old Town, and in Northfield." 

It was in the fall of this year, 1735, that David Parsons began his 
ministry with the people of this Third Precinct of Hadley. What a 
time and what a place in which to begin ! 

Of the circumstances connecting this beginning with that great 
revival of religion we are not told in our annals. Yet who can doubt 
that there was a connection and one that was most vital ? 

This was four years previous to the organization of the church. 
Pass over these four years and we are on the eve of another great 
religious movement — so great and so wide reaching that the former 
one seems only like tlie introduction to this. 

On the da}^ our fathers gathered here, two hundred and fifty ^^ears 
ago, to enter into solenm covenant together before God and to estab- 
lish this church, George Whitefield on board ship was approaching 
Philadelphia ; and in less than a year from that time, in the following- 
October, he was on his way from Boston " to visit Edwards and the 
scene of the revival in 1735." On this journey he preached at 
Leicester, Brookfield and Coldspring, or Belchertown, as the place is 
now called. For an account of his experience at the next stage I will 
read from his Journal of Friday, Oct. 17. '' Set out as soon as it 
was light and reached Hadley^ a place where a great work of God was 
begun some few years ago. But lately the people of (xod have 
complained of deadness and losing their first love. However, as soon 
as I mentioned Avhat (Jod had done for their souls formerly, it was 
like puttiiig fire to tinder. The remembrance of it quickened them, 
and caused many to weep sorel3^" 

The occasion thus described marked the conuuencement of a new 
revival which quickly overspread Northampton, Hatfield and the other 
valley towns, as it was already spreading in other parts of the state 
and of the country. 

Of this refreshing the Amherst church enjoyed its share. Tiiis is 
shown in the fact that during the next year and a half thirty-five new 
members were added, all but one in the wa}^ of " admission to full 
conunuuion," or as we now should say " on confession of their faith." 
These were chiefl}" of the families already mentioned, tlie sons and 
daughters of parents belonging to the church. Most of them were 
young, their ages ranging in general from fifteen to twenty-live. 



Two or three, :it least, were older than tweiity-tive and some may 
have been under fifteen. A most precious ingathering, therefore, and 
full of promise for the future ! 

But there were other results of this revival than the accession of 
these new members. It deeply affected the moral and spiritual life 
of the community. AVe have proof of this in a paper drawn up at 
the time and signed by thirty-six men and thirty-four women. From 
this let me read a few sentences to show its tenor. 

" It has of late pleased a kind and merciful God in a very wonderful 
manner to pour out his Spirit upon this people in awakening, convincing 
and convicting influences ui)on sinners and in refreshing and com- 
forting influences upon saints. To the end we may guard against 
falling into sin or neglecting those duties (iod has required of us, and 
may obtain the continuance and increase of so glorious a mercy as we 
have for some considerable time enjoyed, we, in a humble dependence 
upon divine power and grace for assistance and strength, do agree to 
the following Covenant. That we will devott; ourselves in our several 
places and according to our several capacities to the great business of 
a religious life, and truly endeavor that we may answer the great end 
of our being in the world, the glory of (lotl and the everlasting good 
of ourselves and others." 

Following this, is a careful specification of Christian duties such as 
" a strict observance of the Lord's day," faithful care of the interests 
of others, avoidance of slander and meddlesome gossip, fidelity in the 
family and careful abstinence from all imi)ure and unliecoming 
conduct. 

It is a suggestive fact that in the list of seventy names subscribed 
to this covenant we miss those of many who were members of the 
church while we find some sixteen that are not on the church roll. It 
may not surprise us that some genuine C'hristians should have hesi- 
tated to put their signatures to so solemn a covenant, but it does 
seem strange that any who could sign this paper should have failed to 
take the further step of uniting with the Lord's people. None the 
less, however, does this paper testify to the extent and ix'rvasive 
power of the revival. 

We have evidence to the same effect, also, fi'om another source. 
We know that there was a division of sentiment in the chui'ches and 
among the theologians of the period about Whitelield and the religious 
movement attending his work. Out of this grew a long and heated 



21 

controversy- Among tlie contribntions to tiiis discnssion we tind llu; 
following testimonial from pastors of this region : 

" We whose names are subscribed to this would hereby declare to 
the glory of (Jod's grace that we judge that there has been a happy 
revival of religion in the (-ongregatious that have been committed to 
our pastoral care, and that there are many in them that by abiding 
manifestations of a serious religious and inimble spirit, and a consci- 
entious care and watchfulness in their behavior toward (Tod and man 
give all grounds of charity towards them as having been sincere in 

the profession they have made. ^Ve think the effect has been such, 

and still continues to l)e such as leaves no room reasonal)ly to doubt 
of God's having been wonderfully in the midst of us, and such as has 
laid us under great obligations forever to admire and extol the riches 
of his grace in doing such great things for us. 

Stephen Williams, pastor of a church in SpringHeld. 

Peter Raj'nolds, Enfield (Conn.). 

Jonathan Edwards, Northampton. 

Samuel AUis, Somers (Conn.). 

John Woodbridge, Second Church, Iladley. 

David Parsons, Jr., Third Church, Hadley. 

Pxlward Billings, Coldspring. 

Timothy Woodbridge, Hatfield. 

Chester AVilliams, First Church, Hadley." 
We learn thus of the happy spiritual conditions which encompassed 
this church in those first years of its existence. What auspices more 
favorable could have lieen desired? During the forty following 
years in which Mr. Parsons lived and continued in this pastorate there 
seems tq ^bave been a condition of general prosperity with frequent 
additions to the membership, the whole number of names on the roll 
having been at the time of his death two hundred and forty-eight. 
But at no other time in his ministry were there so large accessions as 
in these earliest years. 

The growth of the settlement seems to have been very rapid. INIr. 
Judd tells us that " The east inhabitants are not noticed in the town 
records of Hadley until Jan. 5, 1730, when a connnittee was appointed 
to lay out a burying-place. After 1782 the people had preaching a 
part of the year. In 1735 Mr. Parsons began to [)reach. He was 
called to settle April 13, 1737, and again in Sei)tember of the same 
year. He did not accept these calls, but preached for a time in 
Southampton in 1737 and 1738." In 173!) the call was renewed and 



22 

;icct'p^^''l- i'^^' ''i'*^t house of worship \v;is begun in 17o)S. It stood 
where we now see the College Observatory. Services were held in 
this building before 1742, but it was not completed till 1753, eleven 
years later. This looks like slow progress, but " in 1758 the popula- 
tion of the settlement had become greater than that of the mother 
town, and in 17!)0 Amherst had about twelve hundred inhal)itants 
while Hadley had only some six hundred."* 

Among those who became identified with the community in its 
development there are certain names upon which we ma}? llttingly 
linger ; for they seem to have given a certain tone to this village which 
it has held in all its subsequent history. 

1 have named as one of the founders Richard C'hauncey. There 
came with him to the settlement, his two brothers Charles and Josiah. 
Little is told us concerning Charles, but Richard and Josiah were men 
of mark, occupying responsible offices and evidently commanding the 
highest esteem. 

Let us glance at the family to which they belonged. Their father 
was the Rev. Isaac Chauncey of Hadley, a graduate of Harvard 
College and distinguished for his erudition. An older brother and 
four brothers-in-law were all ministers and graduates of either Harvard 
or Yale. Their grandfather was Rev. Israel Chauncey of Stratford, 
who with his two brothers Nathaniel and Elnathan were graduated at 
Harvard in 1661. He was one of the founders of Yale College and 
was chosen to be its Rector or President, though he did not accept 
tlie election. His brother Nathnniel was the eminent pastor of the 
church in ILTtfield, and their father was the Rev. Charles Chauncey, 
the second President of Harvard College. It was a family of Clu'is- 
tian scholars, endowed with extraordinary intellectual gifts and a 
l)assion for learning. The old Stratford home contained a library 
unec^ualed, probably, by any other in private hands this side of the 
Atlantic. The home in Hadley, where Rev. Isaac Chauncey was 
l)astor for forty-nine years, continued the same scholarly tastes and 
habits. The straitened circumstances of the family made it imprac- 
ticable to send the younger sons to college, but none the less were 
they trained to the love of sound culture and luibituate(^l to a rare 
intellectual life. Three young men, brothers and companions, came 
from such a family :iud su(^h a home to bear their i)art in building up 
this settlement and in giving it the chai-acter it was to susttiin. 

Notice next the young pastor. Rev. David Parsons. He also cauu' 
*Dickinson's Centennial Discoiir.se. 



23 

from scholarly associations. His grandfather was Judge of the 
Hampshire County Court : his father and uncle were graduates of 
Harvard, which was also his own alma matei- ; he Avas a descendant 
of Elder Strong of Northampton, and finally a kinsman of the 
Chaunceys. Who can doubt the elevating influences he must have 
exerted during his long pastorate? 

Observe again the name of Nehemiah Strong. He was a near 
relative of Mr. Parsons and came to Amherst soon after the organi- 
zation of the church, luoving hither from Northampton. We mav 
naturally associate with him his wife's son by a previous marriage, 
who also came from Northampton and was afterward greatly honored 
here as Dea. Jonathan Edwards. Mr. Strong's two sous Nehemiali 
and Simeon seem to have been the first young men from Amherst who 
went to college. The former was graduated at Yale in 1755, the 
latter in the following year 1756. Nehemiah after his graduation 
became pastor of the cluuch in Granby, Conn., and later professor of 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Yale. Simeon entered on 
the practice of law here at home and became eminent, rising to the 
positions of Representative, Senator and Judge of the Supreme Court. 
The intellectual and scholarly traits of the family are further shown 
in the fact that four grandsons vvei-e graduated from Harvard, Yale 
or AYilliams. 

Of similar significance is the name of Nathaniel Coleman. His son 
Seth Coleman was graduated at Y'ale in 1765, and, after studying 
medicine in New Haven, followed the calling of a physician in this 
place. .^Here, also, the intellectual tone of the famil}' is proven by 
the superior culture of tlie grandchildren ^and the high positions they 
were called to occupy. 

It is noteworthy that before Amherst College was founded no less 
than forty-two young nien of Amherst families liad pursued, or were 
pursuing, a collegiate course. In the period from 1771 to 1823, 
thirty-nine natives of this town were graduated at Harvard, Yale, 
Dartmouth, Williams and JVIiddlebury. How are we to account for 
this ? Whence came the impulse to this wide-spread zeal for education 
in such a snudl farming counnunity ? We turn to the infiuence exerted 
by this circle of intellectual leaders as a partial explanation of it. 

r>ut give your attention to this circle a little further. 1 have 
named six families as belonging to it. These are only the beginning. 
It included others like Dea. Simeon Clark — who himself and his Avife 
were relatives of the vStrongs and of Mr. Parsons, — ;ipp:irciillv nlso 



24 

the Boltwoods and the greater part of the old siib.stnntial families of 
the early settlers who lived near the center. These would naturally 
have come into close association as near neighbors. Thus we can see 
that there were the materials here for society" of a high order. 

But there was a })eiil also. People become jealous of social 
distinctions. And somehow the people remote from the center of this 
precinct seem to have become jealous of those in the village. In the 
winter of 1772, a little more than thirty years after the church was 
organized, we find " the ends of the town" combined in a struggle 
against the center, and this struggle was continued with great bitter- 
ness for years. 

The meeting-house was now too small to accommodate the growing 
eonnnunity, and it seemed necessary to provide more room. To meet 
this exigency it was proposed to build two new meeting-houses, both 
remote from the center ; and a vote to this effect was carried by a 
large majority. Wrongful measures, however, had been taken to 
secure this result, and the injustice was so palpable that tlie Legis- 
lature interfered and put a stop to the proceedings.* 

Immediately after this came the War of the Revolution. And here 
the town was divided again. We find, too, that the division, in great 
measure, kept along the ohl lin(>. Tliis is not altogether surprising. 
It was natural, perhaps, that cultivated, thoughtful men, who had 
always made much of the sacredness of law and the duty of loyal 
citizenship, should hesitate to join such an uprising, — the more because 
Amherst was so far from any seaport and not likely to have suffered 
from the oppressions of the times as many other places had done. 
And perha[)s it was natui^l, too, for those who had tried to make a 
revolution in town aft'airs to enter with keen zest into this larger 
revolution. We can understand, also, that the annnosities and 
antagonisms of the local strife might easily have gone into this new 
Held and Ix'come deeper and fiercer for the vaster interests at stake. 

As it was, the men who had been foremost in the scheme to divide 
the village, ))ecame foremost in zeal for the colonial cause, and as 
they had carriecl a majority of the people in the fornu'r couti'st, they 
now swept everything before them. 

The old leaders were thus brought into disrepute, were retired from 
public otiices and treated with no little obhupiy. Doubtless they gave 
provocation enough for this treatment: and we cannot but rejoice 
that the spii'it of loyally to i\merica trinniplied so completely liere in 
Amherst ovei- tliat of loyalty to the king. 

*AppenfUx B. 



25 

Bui there is a pathos in the incidents of these times which we may 
■well heed. Remembering how these were aged men with silvered hair : 
that they were the fathers of the place, to w'hich they had come in its 
earlj'^ days and given it their best thought and warmest interest ; that 
they were high-minded men too, scrupulous of the right, steadfast to 
their convictions and living in the fear of (4od, — remembering them 
thus, can we repress a feeling of regret that clouds so heavy should 
have gathered over them at the end ? 

The first pastor, Rev. David Parsons, died .Inn. 1, 1781, at the age 
of sixty-eight. We cannot but question whether the turmoil and 
troubles of these later years may not possibly have hastened this 
event. He had been with the people in this place more than forty-five 
years and had seen the church and community grow from small 
beginnings to strength and influence. These, as they have continued 
for more than a centur}', are the best witnesses to his Avorth and power. 

We have, however, another testimony in the '• Memoirs " of one of 
his people. Dr. Coleman. In the journal iniblished with these " Me- 
moirs " the tenderest references are continually made to Mr. Parsons. 
In one place Mr. Coleman expresses regret that in going to college 
he must lose his preaching ; in another he gives a sketch of a sermon 
and tells of the spiritual exaltation he felt in listening to it ; in another 
of a singing school at the pastor's house " which was turned into the 
most solemn religious meeting he had ever seen " ; in still another of 
the wise and sympathetic counsels he received in a visit to his pastor 
when under a cloud of despondency ; and finally he speaks of his 
death in these w-ords. " Jan. 2, 1781. Our respected, godly minister, 
Mr. Parsons, was removed into the world of spirits, to receive the 
rewards of his indefatigable labors. This providence filled my mind 
with anxious solicitude for my family, the church, and the people of 
his charge." " Jan. 4. Paid our last respects to the remains 
of our never to be forgotten pastor. The pi'ovidence gave me lasting- 
impressions of solemnity and engagedness in i)rayer." Here are 
intimations of the quality of the man and of his personal power over 
the people to whom he ministered for so long a period. 

During the year following ^Ir. Parsons' death the war ended and 
peace was restored. The soldiers came back from their canqjaigns 
and the interests of the home and connminity rose again into promi- 
nence. 

Foremost of all questions was that of a new minister. Attention 
turned to the son of the old minister, David Parsons the third, now 
4 



26 

kuowu as I)i'. David Parsons. He had been graduated at Harvard 
ten years Ijefore and had jjreaehed in Roxlmry and other places. 
Calls had come to him to settle, but he had declined them and was 
disposed to follow a business life. vSoon after liis father's death he 
was asked to preach here, and fiually tlie people invited him to the 
pastorate. 

This action met with a strong and determined opposition. And 
now again, the division kept near to the old line. Especially con- 
spicuous in the opposition were certain of the returned soldiers and 
many of those who had been foremost in the war j)arty. The number 
engaged in it was large, too, not falling very much below that of the 
party in favor of INIr. Parsons. Failing to prevent the call, this 
body withdrew from the church and as "aggrieved" members called 
an ex parte council for advice.* 

Meanwhile the church had called a council to ordain Mr. Parsons. 
Tliis had been assigned first to Oct. '.)th, but Avas afterward changed 
to Oct. '2nd and came thus on the next day after the council of the 
" aggrieved " met. So that council adjourned for its members to 
attend the ordination and met again on Frichiy to prepare a result and 
dissolve. 

This I'esult seems not to have l)een satisfactory, for anotlier coun<nl 
was called to meet Oct. 'iiSth, which varied somewhat in its member- 
ship from the former. In that the clTurclies represented were Soutli- 
ampton, Williamsburg, W'liately, Htitlield, Northami)ton and West- 
hami)t(>n, while in this they were Southampton, Montague, Whately, 
Hatlield and Westliampton. This council took action looking toward 
a reconciliation of the two parties and ailjourned to meet Nov. 1 1th : 
and finally, at the adjourned meeting, advised the aggrieved party, 
'•' if their proposal of uniting in the choice of a mutual council was not 
complied witli in foui' weeks to proceed to organize and settle a min- 
ister." 

Our records ^liow that the cliin'ch sought a mutual council and took 
the necessary steps for calling one — even pressing it on the aggrieved 
party with great persistence. But the council was not called, and 
still the aggrieved did *•' proct'ed to organize." 

This was the origin of the Second Church. The schism may well 
remind us of that in the Hartford Church which issued in tlu' found- 
ing of lladley. A similar strife had also arisen in connection with 
the separation of the Ilatliehl church from that of lladley. and othei's 
*Appenrtix (.'. 



27 

nut altogetlier unlike these have oeeiUTed in tliis region in Uiter times. 
Perhaps this unyielding-, — is it too strong to say contentious? — dis- 
position may have been more closely related than we think to that 
great love of personal liberty and that indomitable persistence in fol- 
lowing their religious convictions which characterized the founders of 
New England from the time they left the mother countrj^ and long 
before that. But in our retrospect we cannot but question whether 
these fathers might not have done their work even better than they 
did, if they had pondered more deeply these words of .lesus, ''• Blessed 
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." 

The pastorate of Dr. Parsons continued till Sept. 1st, l.sil), a period 
of nearly thirty-seven j^nu's. He was then dismissed at his own 
request. He died May 18th, bS-io. 

Proofs are abundant that he was a man of remarkable abilities and 
highly gifted with those social qualities that make warm and con- 
stant friendships. The church greatly prospered under his care and 
increased in membership, notwithstanding the embarrassuients with 
which he began his work. Anew meeting-house was built in 1788 
on the ground where the old one had stood and the people seem to 
have been harmonious among themselves and united in their esteem 
for the pastor. 

We are to have a sketch of Dr. Parsons and of his father from a 
grandson who worthily represents the family to-day in the Christian 
ministry, and 1 leave to him the fuller account of their lives. 

An event of no little importance during the latter part of this period 
was the coming of Noah Wel)Ster and his family in 1812 to make 
their home here. This is a proof of the attractiveness of Amherst at 
that time to people of culture ; and this family in their coming 
brought reinforcements to all the better life of the community. I 
have no need to dwell upon the intellectual gifts of one whose name 
is a household word wherever the English language is spoken. But 
it would be a faulty sketch of the church's history if I should say 
nothing of his home as a center of religious life. Dr. Webster, his wife 
and three daughters, at their coming united with the cluiich by letter 
from New Haven. Afterward two other daughters and a son united by 
confession of faith. The family thus gave their intiuence to the cause 
of Christ. And this intiuence was positive. These young ladies were 
active, as I have been told, especially in the revivals of their time, 
taking pains to seek their young friends and guide them into the new 
life. By reason of their intellectual and S(»cial gifts thev wei'e h'ad- 



28 

ers of society and this letulersliip was beuutifully given to tlie service 
of Christ. Individuals now living speak in terras of grateful affec- 
tion concerning the interest thus manifested in their personal welfare 
and testify to the salutary |)ower they exerted in the village. Prob- 
ably this household was a considerable factor in giving to Amherst 
the religious earnestness for which it was conspicuous at the time of 
the estal)lishment of the college. The AVebsters remained here ten 
years, until 1822, when they returned to New Haven. A part of the 
work of these years is in the great Dictionary, but there is another 
part whose record is above. 

The third pastor was Rev. Daniel A. Clark, who had been previ- 
ously settled at Weymouth, Mass. and at Southbury, Conn. He was 
installed Jan. 26th, ls20, and was dismissed Aug. 5, 1824. 

During his time the movement which had long been preparing for 
the establishment of a college came to its culmination and the college 
was founded. In this enterprise our church bore a conspicuous and 
honorable part. Indeed it hardly seems an overstatement to say that 
the First Church was the mother of Amherst College. Dr. Parsons 
in his day had been reputed one of the most judicious instructors in 
New England and his home had been a favorite place for the faculty 
of Harvard College to send such students as needed to spend a time 
in the country. Also under his supervision and generous patronage 
the old Academy had been established. Thus a beginning had been 
made for the greater institution now proposed. To that work pastor 
and people alike gave their hearty zeal and united exertion, sparing 
no pains to start the College on its prosperous way. Of this we shall 
hear more fully from Prof. Tyler. 

Mr. Clark was a preacher of great power. Three volumes of his 
sermons were iniblished, had a wide circulation and were regarded as 
among the ablest sermons of the times. In one of these volumes is 
a biograi^hical sketch l>y Rev. Dr. C4eorge Shepard of Bangor, from 
which I derive most of the information that I have concerning him. 
His style was "bold, original, pungent, direct." " His sermons were 
filled with thought, often original, always concisely and strikingly 
expressed." " He eminently excelled in Riblical instruction." " While 
in Amherst, he was in the maturity and full strength of his faculties ; 
and it was here that he prepared and preached some of his abh'st 
sermons." " Mr. Clark's person, voice, and entire mannei- were iu 
perfect keeping with his style ; a large masculine fiame : a voice 
harsh, strong, capable of great volume, though not very Hexibie : an 



29 

actiuu, for the most part, uugmceful, but siguilieiint and uatural ; a 
couutenanoe bearing bold, strongly marked features at every opening 
of wliieh the waked and working passions would look intensely out : 
— altogether gave the idea of huge, gigantic power." 

Again, Mr. Clark was an aggressive reformer. Oiu' of our old cit- 
izens tells nie that he was especially earnest in the temi)erance reform 
and made lumself unpopular by his constant agitation of the subject. 

Those were the early dajj^s of the warfare against strong drink, and 
it cost a man something to do what the poi)ular sentiment of a com- 
munity now requires. 

Mr. Clark remained iu Amherst a number of months after his dismis- 
sion, then became pastor of the church in Bennington, Xt. ; whence 
he went to the First Presbyterian Church in Troy, N. Y., and after 
that to Adams, N. Y. He died, March 3, 1840, in Ncav York Cit}', 
and his dust was laid to rest in the cenieterj' at New Haven, Conn. 
His entries on our record book close with these words, " Here I drop 
my pen. May God bless the people to whom I have ministered and 
build them up for heaven and give them all, my friends and m^^ foes, 
an inheritance among them that are sanctified." 

Early iu Mr. Clark's ministry the church in South Amherst was 
organized, Oct. 14, 1824, and four years later, at the beginning of 
the next pastorate, the church in North Amherst, Nov. 15, 1826. 
The occasion for these new churches seems to have been the growth 
of the sections in which they were plante.d. Their members Avent 
from the First Church and the Second alike, and both were weakened, 
though i think not seriously, by the losses thus involved. 

On the 5th of January, 184G, Rev. Royal Washburn was installed 

as the fourth pastor, and continued in the office till his death, Jan. 1, 

3" 1803. He was married iu 1847 to Harriet Parsons the daughter of 

Rev. Dr. Parsons, who survived her husband manj'^ years and 

became the wife of Hon. David Mack. 

The name of Mr. Washburn is held in precious remembrance. All 
the allusions ever made to him in my hearing have been full of affec- 
tion and praise. He combined the gifts of a good preacher with those 
of a good shepherd of the flock in a completeness that is unusual, and 
his ministry, though laborious and hampered with disease, was happy 
and fruitful. Prof Fiske in his ()l)ituary Address names as conspic- 
uous traits of his character "unaffected -sunplicity and modesty," 
" foi'getfulness of self," " cautious and sound judgment," "affability 
and cheerfulness," '• warm and generous benevolence," and to com- 



30 

plete the whole *•' harmony and consisteac}' of character." Very touch- 
ing are the words Mr. Washburn uses in a farewell address to his 
people, a little before his death. "Have you all felt, since you 
have thought of obtaining another Pastor, that such gifts are from 
the Lord Jesus? ' ^e gives some Pastors.' Christian friends, have 
you prayed to Christ M'ith great earnestness, that he would send 
you a Pastor? Listen to the last, and what you should regard as the 
dying ivords of your Pastor. Lay aside all division and coldness, and 
as a united church, loving one another, and loving the Redeemer, bow^ 
before him in humble confession and penitence, and pray with earnest 
importunity that he would look graciously upon you and provide you 
an under-Shepherd. My beloved flock, I feel unable to say much 
more to you, but I cannot close without entreating you to live at 
peace among 3'ourselves. Let no root of bitterness spring up — it 
wounds the blessed Saviour, and destroys the peace and usefulness of 
the church. And now brethren, farewell. The God of all comfort 
be with you, through Jesus Christ. Amen." 

In less than a year after Mr. Washburn's death the church extended 
a call to the Rev. Matthew T. Adam, a native of Kilmarnock, Scot- 
land, who had been educated at Glasgow and London. He was 
installed Dec. 28, 1838, and was dismissed Dec. 10, 1.S34. His pre- 
vious ministry had been under conditions very unlike those he found 
in Amherst and he seems to have wanted the tact to adapt himself to 
this New England people. For this reason chiefly his pastorate was 
short. At his dismission the Council testified to his personal worth 
as follows. " He has been unwearied in his labor's, faithful and con- 
scientious in the discharge of his mhiisterial duties and above all sus- 
picion as to high moral and Christian character." 

After this the chuicli was without a pastor for over two years, 
and then called the Rev. Josiah Lent, who had beiMi i)reviously 
settled at Weymouth. He was installed April 1!), 1S37, and died in 
otlice Nov. 1!), 183i). His ministry was short bul fruitful and he is 
remembered as a faithful, consecrated man who did not spare liimsi'lf 
for the Master or for tho i)eoi)le whom he served in the gospel. His 
wife continued iier nicmbership here and her undiminished interest in 
the welfare of this church, till recently she passed from a lifi' of pro- 
tracted suffering to join him who had entered into rest before lier. 

It is fifty years ago thi^ month that Mr. Bent died. With liim 
closed the first century of tliis cluirch's history. A half century has 
passed since. And in review of this, we find occasion for great joy 



31 

in tliat all the pastors during this period, with one exception, are still 
livinii'. Some of them we welcome with glad hearts to-day, to this 
their old field of seed-sowing and harvesting, and from others whom 
we had hoped to see we receive greetings warm with the interest and 
love of other years, which dull not with the lapse of time, noi- become 
weakened with the creeping on of infirmities. Fathers and brethren, 
Colton, Dwight, Hubbell, .Jenkins and Emerson, God bless them each 
and every one. In this place a grateful people "esteem them very 
highly in love for their works sake." And may it be long before 
we shall have to say of any of them, "They rest from their labors 
and their works do follow them." 

lUit there is one recent pastor of whom even now we have to s[)eak 
these words, Howard Kingsbur}'. How well I remember his form as 
1 used to see him in the college choir at New Haven ! And how well 
you, who loved him as your pastor, remember him I The man of 
gentle mold, with fine, poetic spirit attuned like a harp to vibrate at 
the lightest touch and make music as under the sweep of angel's 
hands, — too soon as it w^ould seem to us, he went from earth "to join 
the choir invisil)le," but not too soon for you to have found out his 
worth and thanked God for so rare a treasure. 

Concerning the story of the church during these last fifty years it 
seems unnecessary and superfluous for me to speak. The period has 
been full of life, of activities, of enterprise. But there are many here 
that have had a share in these and can speak of them out of their own 
experience. And when there are eye witnesses to testify, the man 
who derives his knowledge from books and hearsay may well keep 
silence. - This is especially true with reference to personal sketches. 
Within the memory of those before me, many faithful men and women 
of remarkable gifts and eminent distinction have been connected with 
this church and borne a noble part in its life and work. Happily we 
shall be permitted to leax'u of them from others whose personal 
acquaintance will give the sketches an added excellence and vividness. 

There is one conspicuous fact that I have passed over and to which 
I Avould call youi' attention, that is, the great revivals. I have spoken 
of the two at the beginning of the church's history. Follow on from that 
time for seventy-five years and we come upon no other awakening to 
compare with those. There were, indeed, seasons of religious interest, 
and sometimes the accession of ten or fifteen persons to the church on a 
single occasion. l>ut there was no movement to stir the community 
as a whole. lUit during the last seventv-five years there have been 



32 

many of these great revivals. There was one, the first, under Dr. 
Parsons' ministi'y in IHl,") ; others under Mr. Clark in 1.S20 and again 
in 1828 ; others under Mr. Washburn in 1<S27 and again in 1831 ; 
another in 1834 during the pastorate of Mr. Bent, and three others in 
1841, '4o and ';")(), while Mr. Colton was pastor. Here is a period of 
forty years during which there were no less than nine great revivals. 
Other revivals have come in recent years but this period is especially 
marked. 

In a review of these awakenings, we maj^ well observe the origin of 
the first of the series. There had been in this church a man of great 
faith and of a deeply prayerful spirit. For more than fifty years he 
had lived a consecrated Christian life and for more than thii'ty years 
had been a deacon here. He was now an old man, past his seventieth 
year, and a great longing possessed him to see such a revival as he 
never yet had seen. For this he prayed, and he came to have so 
confident a belief that his prayers would be answered that he told 
some of his friends that " he expected to live to witness a great display 
of almighty power and grace." There came a revival in 1811, but he 
w-as not satisfied. He declared that the " assurances he had received 
from God were not yet fulfilled." And so he prayed on till the great 
revival of 181.''). This refreshing visited both the churches and 
resulted in the addition of ninety to this church alone in a single day. 

In the midst of this season and with his hope at last joyfully fulfilled 
the good man went to his rest. Over his silent body the two churclies 
sorrowed and rejoiced together. The pastor of the Second Church, 
the Rev. Nathan Perkins, preached the funeral sermon, and the old 
church with the new witnessed the triumph of one wlio had aspired to 
be a peacemaker and a child of (iod. 

Such is the story of Dr. Seth Coleman's faith. You may connect 
it as you will with that great revival and with others that folio wetl. 
You may associate with his praj^ers the fidelity of pastors, the sancti- 
fied culture of Christian homes lilvc that of the Websters and the moral 
energy flowing from manj^ other similar sources. But how profound 
and far reaching has been the influence of that one "corn of wlieat 
whicli fell into the ground and died " so many years ago we can nevei- 
knoAA- till all things are levealed. 

And so of all the holy seed which has been sown during tliese one 
hundred and fifty years past, — or during the two hundred and fifty 
years since our fathei's and mothers first planted themselves in New 
England. Think of the limitless fruitage. Behold what (iod hath 



38 

wrought, not only here, but throughout our land iind throughout the 
whole world. 

The backward glance is chiefly valuable in helping us to understand 
the present and to forcast the future. It magnifies and illumines the 
life of to-day to connect it with those germinal beginnings from which 
it has unfolded. But the life of to-day holds the germinal beginnings 
of something larger and better still. Now, as in all former days, 
God's hand beckons to a kingdom that is coming. Our eyes are 
forward while faith and hope outrun our vision. We stand expectant 
for the divine thought to come out in grander meanings as fulfillment 
succeeds fulfillment and anticipation realized rises into keener antici- 
pation of what is about to be. The Eternal One is our God, and in 
this is all promise. 

Establishing here our faith, the steadfast purpose of the fathers 
will animate their children and from a review of their work we shall 
gain wisdom to stand in our places and do with fidelity what falls to 
our lot. 



Note. On page 10, twelfth line from the bottom, read, " perliaps unmarried, though he 
seems." On page ]!), lifteenth line from the top, read " one hundred and fifty j^ears." On 
page '2ii, fourteentli line from the bottom, read " I82G.'" and twelfth line from the bottom 
read " 1S27." 



PI^ESENTArpiON OP POI^^r^AIiFS. 



After the pastoi-'s addi'ess two portraits, one of the Kev. David 
Parsons, D. D., and the other of his wife. Mis. Harriet Williams 
Parsons, were presented to the C'hnrch by Mr. John H. Washl)urn, 
their grandson, wiiose father was the Rev. Ivoyal Washburn the fourth 
pastor of the Church. Mr. Washburn spoke as follows : 

My Friends : — 

This is :t part of the exercises not set down on the programme 
which you have in your hands, and I assure you that it is as unex- 
pected by me as by an}^ of you. My puipose was to send these por- 
traits and have them placed in your hands without an}^ further formality. 
And when this morning your pastor told me that I was expected to 
make a presentation speech and that arrangements to that end had 
been made, I asked him if my speech was written for me. as 1 was 
considered a fairly good reader, while I made no pretensions as a speak- 
er. He assured me that it ivas, and that it should be given in good 
time. Now I am sorry to cast any reflections upon your pastor, but 
he has not furnished me the promised speech, and so you will ])e 
obliged to go without it. 

When I was a school-boy, in one of my S})eakers was a selection 
putting an oration in tiie mouth of an Indian chief (Logan I believe) 
in which he spoke of visiting tlie hunting grounds of liis tribe, over 
wliicli for generations his forefathers had roamed ; and finding only 
• their graves. In coming to Amherst I feel like him. In this place, 
where my great-grandfather, my grandfather and my father lived and 
labored, not one of my kindred remains, save in yonder cemetery 
where so many of them repose. And yet, although my kindred are 
gone, and tliough my home is far away, I love this Church, and 
wherever I go the memory of it remains with nic. 

And why should I not love the Church where my fathei'S labored, 
to whi(Oi they gave their lives, and which guards their graves? May 
mv riii'ht h:nid forti'et its cunning wlien I forget thee. () .K'rusalem I 




Dr. Parsons. 




Mks. Pakmjns. 



35 

In seeking to lind wiuit I might bring as my contribution to this 
celebration, 1 conld think of nothing better, nothing more fitting the 
occasion, than the portraits of my grandfather'and grandmother, Rev. 
Dr. and Mrs. Parsons. Of my great-grandfather no portrait exists, 
nor is there one of my father, bnt these are treasnred by the family. 
That of Dr. Parsons is said to be an excellent likeness ; — that of Mrs. 
Parsons I know to be so, ;ind I take great pleasnre in sjiowing my 
love for this church and doing my part on this joyful occasion by 
presenting to you what I know you will prize so iiighly. 

In behalf of the Church, the Rev. Dr. D. W. Marsh received the 
portraits and thanked the donor, with these words : 

For this First Church in Amherst with its memories of one hundi'ed 
and fifty years, for its living officers and members 1 am recpiested to 
accept your beautiful gift. 

These likenesses of a father and mother in your and our Israel take 
us back more than a hundi'ed years, and b}' this venerable image of 
the second pastor link us to his father the very first pastor of this 
church. We are gratified that you have given us the picture of your 
grandmother as well as of your grandfather, for had there been no 
foremothers there would have been no family and no descendants. 

The first two pastors were liorn Parso]is but several of their descend- 
ants, by the gift of God and call of (lod's people and their own com- 
plying choice, have become parsons. 

Your gift to us entitles you to honor from all. Dr. .Johnson of 
England well expresses our indebtedness to you by saying "Whoever 
l)rings tiear the distant in time or space is a public benefactor." Pres- 
ident Mark Hopkins has said that words of the fathers " fall with 
weight as from the height of earlier times." These silent lips are 
speaking now. And when all the voices of to-day shall have died 
away into a long silence, then, by your kindness, these lips to othei' 
generations will still speak. 

In the name of the church that never dies, we thank vou. 



Bl^Sr\\ AND SEGOND PAS^OI^S. 



By rev. CHARLES H. WILLIAMS. 



" It is a reverend thing," wrote Lord Bacon, "to see an ancient 
castle or building not in decay, or to see a fine timber tree sound and 
perfect. How much more, to behold an ancient, noble family, which 
hath stood against the waves and weathers of time." These words 
may be fittingly applied to that family, of which the first two pastors 
of this church were honored representatives. 

It was a prolific stock. "Few of our earl 3^ settlers," remarks one 
historian, "are represented by more numerous families than those that 
perpetuate the name of this respectable stock." The Parsons tree, 
to borrow Lord Bacon's figure, has sent out its roots to the river and 
its boughs are as the goodly cedars. 

Cornet Joseph Parsons, who came from England and settled at 
Springfield, Mass. in 1635, was the father of ten children, as was the 
son who bore his name. The grandson, David, had only five ; but to 
his eldest son and namesake, your first pastor, wei'e born nine sons 
and daughters, while his son and successor was permitted to see eleven 
olive-plants about his table. 

Evidently, these men put faith in that word of Scripture " Cliiklien 
are a heritage from the Lord," and were more likely than some of 
their descendants to secure the blessing promised to the man who has 
his "quiver full of them." 

That this fecundity was not limited to the Parsons stock, however, 
appears from an entry in the church records of Northampton ; which 
is of interest also as showing what the clerk of that day deemed 
worthy of record. It relates to Mrs. Elizabeth Parsons Allen, mother 
of Major Jonathan Allen, who died in 1800. She w'as, we are told, 
" Eminently pious, and assisted at the birth of three thousand child- 
ren." 



37 

The boughs of tliis tiee were not only many but goodly. From the 
Parsons lineage have come ministers, missionaries, jurists, soldiers and 
men of affairs in various walks of life, who have borne themselves hon- 
orably in their several stations. * 

But we nuist not linger. Frederick Maurice reminds us that "our 
relation to father and mother is the primary' fact of our existence, so 
that we can contemplate no facts apart from that." Leaving, then, 
the remoter ancestry, let us inquire for the parents of your first pastor. 
These were David Parsons and Sarah Stebbius. 

Of the latter, little is known to us, save that she survived her hus- 
band nearly sixteen years, dying June 17, 1759, aged seventy-three 
years. 

Of the husband and father we have more knowledge. The fourth 
sou and Hfth child of Judge Joseph Parsons, Jr. and Elizabeth Strong, 
he was born at Northampton F\'b. 1, 1080 — was graduated at Harvard 
College in 170."», taking a degree from Yale the same year — was set- 
tled over the Congregational Church in Maiden, Mass., in 170It, goino- 
thence, in 1721, to Leicester in the same state, where he died in 
October, 1743, aged 63. 

At Maiden he succeeded the brilliant, but eccentric, ^Michael Wio-. 
glesworth. 

Respecting the circumstances of his call, the historian of Middlesex 
Co. tells us that "it was not until after nine ministers had been con- 
sidered as candidates for the pulpit, that the town and the chui'ch 
were able to come to a loving agreement in the choice of INIr. David 
Parsons." F'rom another source we learn that Mr. Parsons preached, 
part of tb^Vday, on the first Sunday of Mr. Tufts' preaching (one 
whom the court, in default of prompt decision by the church, had 
selected as a "suitable person qualified for the work of the ministry in 
Maiden"). It would seem that, in those days, the churches were not 
content with one candidate a Sunday, but must have two — a suggest- 
ive item for connnittees seeking a pastor, and having an "embarrass- 
ment of riches" in the way of possible candidates. 

On the next day, the church met and voted to call IMr. Parsons and, 
on the Wednesday following the town concurred by fifty-three aflirm- 
ative votes — far the greater part of the voters in the town. luadi'- 
qnate support was the occasion, as with many a minister since, of his 
leaving in 1721, when he accepted the repeated and most in-gent invi- 
tation of the church lately formed in Leicester, whither some of his 
parishioners had removed and were among the leading citizens. 



38 

This fact, together with the heurtiuess of tlie call, gave promise of 
a successful and prolonged ministry — a promise, however, which was 
not fulfilled. The question of finances, so often a root of bitterness 
between pastor and people, again came up. INIr. Parsons knew his 
rights and "knowing dared maintain." That they were his rights 
appears by successive decisions in his favor by ecclesiastical, legal 
and civil tribunals. Whether he was wise in insisting upon them, in 
the way and to the extent he did, we, at this distance of time and with 
our imperfect knowledge of the facts, are not qualified to judge. 
That candid and painstaking investigator, the late Rev. A. P. Marvin, 
writes : "The impression left by the narrative of Judge Washburn is 
unfavorable to the minister, but not a fact appears impeaching his 
character. His claim against the town was sustained by the Coui't of 
Sessions, and the town finally' acknowledged it. The fact appears to 
be that he sought his right in a harsh and provoking way. It was 
folly to suppose that he could usefully minister to a people whom he 
had sued for the arrears of his salary, and he paid a severe penalty 
for his unwisdom." 

The formal tie was dissolved in 1785, though doubtless the true 
bond of union, so far as many of the flock w^ere concerned, had been 
earlier severed. Still, the minister and his family made their home 
in Leicester and the stone, which was over the graves of the wedded 
pair, is now deposited in the church building. 

The eldest of their five children, and the only one of whom we have 
knowledge, was born at Maiden, March "24, 1712, and bore his father's 
name. He was graduated from Harvard in 1721) and, three years 
later, took the JNIaster's degree, the theme of his thesis on that occa- 
sion being "Whether all the Sacred writings are contained in the 
books of the Old and New Testament ;" — which he answered in the 
affirmative. Although he began to preach at East Hadley (now 
Amherst) in November, 178;), he was not ordained until four years 
later, viz. Nov. 7, 1789, the date of the organization of the church, 
having meantime twice declined an invitation to the pastorate. Per- 
haps this prolonged courtship prevented speedy divorce and secured 
that permanent union which was only dissolved by his death, occuring 
Jan. 1, 1781, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the forty-second 
of his pastorate. 

His portrait has been lovingly dr:iwu for us by tlie hand of a fi'ieud 
of fifty years. Rev. Ko])ert Breck of Springfield, in the sermon pleached 
at his funeral. We see him, thus, "a man of strong intellectual 



39 

powers, with a penetrating eye," giving token of that shrewd and 
judicial mind which made his counsel valued ; retaining his classical 
learning beyond most men of his age, but with '"divinity" as his 
favorite study : a doctrinal preacher, reverent in manner, devout in 
temper and fervent in prayer. "• With what solemnity," exclaims his 
friend, "• were the morning and evening devotions otfered up ! I never 
observed auj^thing that surpassed it." 

Nor was he unmindful of the spiritual interests of his own house- 
hold, while caring for the larger household of faith. " There were 
stated seasons daily," we are told, "• wherein every one of the family 
was allowed, and the younger ones enjoined, to retire and pay their 
secret devotions to the Deity." It is said of him, also, that he was a 
friend to all good men, never professing friendship but where he felt 
it nor recalling it when bestowed. 

I^iving in days when party feeling ran high, and sharing the opinion 
of the leading inhabitants of the town as to the hoplessness of the 
American cause, he did not, as a local historian puts it, " escape the 
notice of the warm friends of the revolutionary movement." In the 
warrant for the town meeting, January 6, 1777, the following articles 
appear: " To know the minds of the people of this town, whether 
they esteem the conduct of the Rev. Mr. David Parsons friendly with 
regar<l towards the common cause," and, ''• To have the minds of the 
people, whetiier they will improve the Rev. Mr. Parsons as their 
minister for the future." 

Apparently they decided to " improve " him by a little of the 
"excellent oil" of reproof. For we read, further, that the town 
voted that the conduct of Mr. Parsons was offensive, and chose five 
men, two of them deacons of the church, to inform him of the fact. 
It was well for the comfort of the five, perhaps, that Mr. Parsons had 
not his father's temperament, or the interview might have been less 
agreeable. As it was, the relations of the pastor and people seem to 
have sufferred no violent strain and, four years later, death found 
him still at his post. 

We maj' accept as true the words inscribed over his grave : "A 
man of (iod and faithful servant of Jesus Christ." 

There follows the lecord of the death of Eunice W., consort of the 
Rev. David Parsons, who died Sept. 20, 17l)(), in the 94th year of 
her age. The sentiment appended ma}' be taken, peihaps, as sug- 
gesting her relation to her spouse, as well as that of Christ to both : 
" Let me interpret for him — me his advocate and propitiation. All 



40 

his works in me, good or not good, ingraft. My merit these shall 
perfect, and for these my death shall pay." 

After the death of the father, the people called for the son , Avho was 
graduated from Harvard in 1 771, studied theology with his father, was 
licensed to preach about 177.'), and did preach with such acceptance, in 
Roxbury, Mass. and several towns of Conn., as to receive two or three 
calls." He had, however, made up his mind, owing, as is suggested by 
some writer, to the unsettled state of the country and his infirm health, 
to engage in mercantile business in his native town. But he was per- 
suaded to supply the Amherst pulpit for a time, and, in the autumn 
of 1782, his health meanwhile having improved, he consented to set- 
tle as pastor, and was ordained in October of that year, resigning his 
charge in 1819. 

As we were indebted to a clerical friend for the portrait of 
the father, so we turn to another, Rev. Samuel Osgood of Spring- 
field, for a description of the son. Dr. Parsons, he tells us, " had 
the advantage of an uncommonly fine person, of about medium 
height and rather inclined to corpulency, his features regular, eyes 
raven black, and his whole face beaming with intelligence and good 
nature. He possessed social qualities of a high order. His great flu- 
ency of utterance, his fine flow of social feeling, his extensive knowl- 
edge of men and things, and his inexhaustible fund of anecdote, 
seemed to mark him as a leader in almost an}' conversation that 
might be introduced. His preaching was sensible and instructive, 
and gave you the impression that there was a great deal of reserved 
power. He read his sermons closely and had little or no action in the 
pulpit, though he was far from being tame or dull in his delivery. 
He had not only the keenest sense of the ridiculous, but he indulged 
himself in this way without much restraint." Dr. Osgood adds, 
however, " 1 believe his passion for drollery never ciime out in the 
least degree in the pulpit." 

The reference to Dr. Parsons' wit is prominent in all allusions to 
him. Thus, in an unpublished manuscript of the late Rev. Emerson 
Davis, of Westfield, occurs the statement : " Dr. Parsons was an ex- 
ceedingly jovial man when among his friends, full of wit and good 
humor. He was sensible of his fault, but seemed not to be able to 
discern between drollery and seriousness. When lamenting his iu- 
lirniity and confessing his fnult, he would often use a witticism or 
hiuglKil)le expression to convey' his idea." ^'ery possibly Mr. Davis 
had in mind the anecdote, which has appeared in print, of Dr. Par- 



41 

sons' reply to the ronionstrance of a kinsman, expostulating ^vith him 
upon his too free indulgence in wit, "I know it all, Bro. Howard, 
and it has been my burden through life, but I suppose after all that 
grace does not cure squint eyes." 

\)r. Parsons was an active promoter of tlie educational interests of 
the connnunity, giving the site for the Academy and providing a bell 
at his own cost, serving as the first president of the Trustees of the 
College founded shortly before his death, and showing his loyalty to 
it by a substantial gift as well. For many years he iiad students in 
his family, some of whom bore testimony to the attractiveness of his 
home and to the charm lent to it by its head. 

That Dr. Parsons had more than a local reputation is shown b\' facts 
like these. In ITs.s, when still a young man and only six years in the 
pastorate, he was chosen to preach the election sermon before Gov. Han- 
cock and the Legislature of that year. In 1795, at the suggestion of 
President DAvight, he was appointed Professor of Theology at Yale, but 
declined the honor, chiefly, we are told, because of his warm attachment 
to his people. In 1^00, he received the degree of I). I), from Brown 
University. 

In 181 !», as has been stated, he retired from the pastorate and, 
less than four years later, on the eighteenth of May, 1823, died 
at Wethersfield, Conn., as one of his daughters did three years be- 
fore, while on a visit to his wife's kindred. His age was seventy-four 
years. In announcing his death, one of the religious journals of the 
time states : " Dr. Parsons was a clergyman of learning and talents, 
distinguished as an eloquent and evangelical preacher, much admired 
for the urbanity of his manners, and greatly esteemed and respected, 
by ttre people under his ministerial charge, as a faithful and affec- 
tionate pastor." 

On the twenty-fourth of November, 17'S,"), he had been married to 
Harriet, daughter of Ezekiel and Prudence Stoddard Williams of 
Wethersfield, and grand-daughter of Col. John Stoddard, said to have 
been one of the greatest men of his day. ]\Irs. Parsons survived 
her husband many years, dying here, where most of her life had been 
spent, on the Ath day of June, 1850, aged <S4. 

Of her it is enougii to say that she fulfilled, in minutest detail, the 
picture drawn l)y the inspirrd |)encil in Proverbs, of the virtuous 
woman, whose cliildren rise up and call her blessed, and mIiosc hus- 
band praises her. 

6 



42 

Until tlu' last decade, there has been no time since the settlement 
of the town that some of the Parsons family have not been among the 
landed projH'ietors, sometimes to a large extent. To-day, no one of 
them, I believe, owns a foot of your soil, except in yonder cemetery. 
But they will continue to cherish, as a priceless legacy, the memory 
of those fiodly men who, for more than four score years, stood as 
watchmen upon the walls of Zion here. To you, descendants and 
successors of those to whom they ministered and for whom they 
]irayed, we leave the custody of their honored dust. 



I^BLArpiON OP THE GHlir^GH 

rpO THE 

KDUGMI^IONAL INSH^I^UTIONS op AMHBI^S^. 



By PKOF. AVILLIAM S. TYLI<:K, D. 1).. LL. 1). 



I am asked to contribute a paper ou ''The Kelatiou of the Churches 
to the Educational Institutions of Amherst." As the historian of 
Amherst College I ought to know something of the origin and history 
of these Institutions. And I haA'e no hesitation in saying that the 
otticers and members of this Church and congregation were the fo^tnd- 
ers of Amherst Academy and Amherst College, and inasmuch as the 
Agricultural College was the daughter of Amherst College, this Church 
is the mother of them all. 

It is no new thing for the Churcli to found and foster institutions 
ot%}:earuing. There is a natural and mutual atHnity between sound 
learning and true religion, (iotl has put high honor upon learning in 
his Word. No small part of the Bible was written by learned men. 
Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Paul not only 
sat at the feet of (ramaliel in the chief school of Jewish learning of 
his age, but he shows his acquaintance with (Jreek literature by his 
quotations frcMU the (Jreek poets. No wooner were the miraculous 
gifts which signalized the first establishment of Christianity withdrawn 
than the Churches began to found colleges and tlu'ological schools at 
Jerusalem, at Alexandiia, and the other principal cities, for the spec- 
ial purpose of raising up a pious and learned ministry who should be 
able not oulv to |)reach the truth but also to defend it from the assaults 
of its enemies. 

In the Middle Ages, "Thi- Dark Ages" counnonly so-caUed, what 
liglit there was shone from the monasteries, which were founde(| by 



44 

the church under the lead of such euliyhti'iied and pious princes as 
Charlemagne and Alfred, Avhich kept the light both of learning and 
religion from being utterly extinguished, and which grew at length 
into the universities. As I'niversities appeared in Italy, in France, 
in England, they were established and fostered by the Church and 
chiefly for the better education of the clergy. Oxford and Cambridge 
were founded, and in the course of time enriched with princely endow- 
ments for this express purpose. Harvard College was founded by 
our Puritan Fathers, because, in the language of the founders them- 
selves, they "dreaded to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches 
when the present ministers were dead," or, as Cotton Mather expi*essed 
it sixty years later, because ' ^ our fathers saw that without a college 
to train an able and learned ministr}', the Church in New England 
must soou have come to nothing." Yale College was founded by 
the Congregational Ministers of Connecticut chiefly for the purpose 
of educating ministers for the Colony. Princeton was established by 
the Synod of New York for the purpose of supplying the church with 
learned and able ministers. All the -New England colleges, and most 
of those which are now so thickly sown over the great West, owe their 
origin to Christian men and Christian motives. 

Amherst College was bom of the revivals and the spirit of missions 
that distinguished the first half of the present €entury, and the good 
people of Amherst were its godfathers and godmothers. Na}', they 
were its fathers and mothers. For it Avas, in the strictest sense, a 
Congregational enterprise. Amherst College was founded, not by a 
Presbyterian Synod, not by an Association of ministers, not by a 
Council of churches, but by a single local church. Other churches 
helped, helped freely and genei'ously. Other ministers gave their 
advice and influence. But the ministers and members of this church 
took the lead. 'I'hey bore the burden, Uinj did the Avork. They gave 
the money to begin the work. They poured it out like Avater Avhen 
money was scarce — Avhen ten dollars was Avorth as much as a hundred 
is now — when it was more dillicult to get ten dollars for a college than 
it is to get a thousand now. None of them Avere rich. Some of them 
literally made themselves poor by their liberal giving. They gave 
beyond their means. They did more than they were able to do. There 
were no millionaires in those days. Among all the early benefactors 
of Amherst College there was not a man Avho Avould be called rich 
now. There were very few who Avere considered rich then. Brethren, 
we testify to you of the grace of God Avhich Avas bestOAved upon the 



4o 

int'mber.s of this chureh in that (hiy. how the altumhince ol' thrii" joy 
and their deep poverty abounded mito the riches of their liberality : 
for to their poAver, 1 bear record, and beyond their power tliey first 
gave their own selves to tlie Lord and then gave their property to the 
founding of the College. The 850,000 C'harit}' Fund which is tlie 
corner-stone, not to say the very foundation of the College, was largely 
contributed and wholly raised by them. In tlie tirst place they sub- 
scribed with their own hands nearly $10,000 of the first $35,000, and 
when the whole subscription was in danger of being rendered null and 
void by failure to raise the remaining §15,000, nine of them made them- 
selves responsible b}' a guarantee bond for that additional sum, rel}' iug 
on a further subscription to reimburse them, running the risk of a failure 
to raise it, and in the end actually paying no inconsiderable part of it out 
of their own pockets. Rev. David Parsons, the second pastor of the 
church, headed this guarantee bond of $15,000, after having already 
subscribed $600 of the first $35,000. The second signer of the bond 
was Samuel Fowler Dickinson, a deacon and leading member of the 
church, who had already subscribed $600 to the Fund. The third 
signer was Josiah White (the father of Mrs. Edward Hitchcock), 
whose previous subscription to the Fund was $150. The fourth was 
Elijah Boltwood who had subscribed $200 of the first $35,000 and 
afterwards actually paid out of his own pocket $500 of tlie remaining 
$15,000. Deacon Lelaud (a name familiar to the older of the present 
members of the church first subscribed $150, then became one of the 
signers of the $15,000 Bond and then gave his individual bond for 
the unconditional payment of $1,000 of that $15,000. John Eastman 
(fathcT of the Secretary of the American Tract Society, and of two 
excellent ministers of the gospel, and grandfather of the Misses East- 
man of Dana Hall and of others who live among us) was not one of 
the signers of the $15,000 Bond, but he subscribed $400 to the Fund, 
and then actually paid $1,000 more towards indemnifying the signers. 
Elijah Dickinson gave the land for the site of the College buildings 
and the original campus, estimated at $600. Dr. Rufus Cowles gave 
lands in Maine valued at $3,000. Such were some of the leading- 
donors to the foundation on which the College was originally built. 
And these are onh^ examples and illustrations of the manner and 
spirit in which the rank and file of this church and congregation, 
almost without exception, contributed money according to their means 
and beyond their ability, for the founding of the College. And Dea- 
con Graves, better known as Col. Graves, was the indefatigable, 



46 

iiuquenchable, insatiable, irresistible agent, in raising almost the 
entire sum. 

But the most remarkable manifestation of the interest, nay, enthu- 
siasm, which the good people of Amherst felt in the enterprise was in 
the erection of the first dormitory, the old South College, which they, 
turning out in mass meeting as it were, bringing in the materials, and 
many of them camping on the ground, put up with their own hands 
from corner-stone to roof -tree in ninety days. The scene, as described 
by Noah Webster and other eye witnesses, seems more like romance 
than reality — more like a chapter from the miraculous history of the 
Israelites in the Old Testament, such, for example, as the building of 
the Tabernacle or the Temple, than an event in our Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. For, not only did the people have a mind to work, but they 
too, like the Israelites of old, felt that they were building the Lord's 
house. At the laying of the corner-stone, Rev. Dr. Parsons, the 
retired pastor and President of the Board of Trustees, perfoimed the 
ceremony ; Noah Webster, then vice-president and on the resignation of 
Dr. Parsons which immediately followed elected president of the Board, 
gave the address ; and Kev. Daniel A. Clark, the then pastorof the church, 
preached a sermon suited to the occasion ; and in reading the sermon and 
the address no thought strikes us so forcibly as the philanthropic, Chris- 
tian and missionarj" s})irit of the founders. The very title of the sermon 
struck the keynote of the charitable enterprise, and history herself, 
looking back after the la]jse of almost seventy years, can hardly 
describe the result more exactly than in these words of faith and 
hope and almost proi)hetic vision which Rev. Mr. Clark uttered at the 
laying of the corner-stone : — "In vision I see it among the first insti- 
tutions of our land, the younger sister and the best friend of our the- 
ological seminaries, the centre of our educational societies, the solace 
of poverty, the joy of the destitute, nnd the hope ;ind tlie salvation of 
millions." 

Morning and evening prayers were at first attentU'd in tlu' old vil- 
lage "Meeting-house," which then occupied the site of the Observa- 
tory find (Octagonal Cabinet, and was considered one of the best church 
edifices in Hampshire County. In the same memorable sanctuiu-y, 
sitting for the most part in the broad galleries, the Faculty :uid stud- 
ents worshipped on the Sabbath with the people of th(' parish, and 
often admired and rejoiced, but oftener feared and trembled under 
the powerful preaching of the pastor. .Joseph Kstabrook, the first 
Professor of (ireek and Latin in tlie College, was the first Superin- 



47 

tendeut of the first Sabbath School in Amhei'st, and Noah Webster, who 
had so nuicli to do in the founding of tlie College, wrote the Constitution* 
and Avas tlu' Cliairnian of the IJoard of Managers. Professor Estabrook 
was succeeded by Pindar Field, a member of the first senior class. Dur- 
ing the first ten or fifteen years tutors in college were most frequently 
superintendents of the Village Sabbath School and many of the teach- 
ers were college students. Tutors Burt, Clark, Perkins, T^der and Bur- 
gess wei'e all superintendents before 18.'^).'). Heuben Tinker of the 
class of 1.S27, one of the early luissionar}^ graduates, was superintend- 
ent during his Si'uior year. Henry Ward Beecher, then a senior in 
College, was the inspiring teacher of a large class of young men, when 
I was superintendent ; antl Thatcher Thayer, widely known among his 
numerous pupils as "Dominie Thayer" of Newport, was his succes- 
sor. Edwards A. Beach of the class of '24 was for a year or two 
leader of the choir and teacher of music in the Village Church, and 
he told me that he '•'boarded round" among the good people for a 
part of his i)ay. The relations between the students and the families 
of the village in those early days were in the highest degree confiden- 
tial and affectionate. There was none of the traditional hostility 
between tlu^ town and tlu' gown. On the contrary the best families 
not only invited students to their receptions but boarded them, if 
indigent, gratuitously — if not needy, at nominal prices. And the 
letters which tlie writer received from the alumni of those halcyon 
daj's when lie was writing the history of the College, (althougli tiicA' 
had already reached their three score and ten) read very much like 
love letters. Some of them had actually made love and found wives 
among the young ladies of the church fifty years ])efore, and niore 
recent graduates have not been slow to follow their example. Coll(?o-e 
students who were teachers In the \'illage Sabbath School have been 
greatly useful in promoting revivals in the Village Church. The great 
revival in 1831, which was equally powerful in the college and the 
village, originated in the Sabbath Scrhool (Concert, and owed its origin 
apparently to the power and pathos with which Moody Harrington of 
the class of '31 pressed home upon the crowded assembly the question : 
"Why do we sit still ?■■ 

Wei-e ther(> time I would gladly pursue this topic further. J have 
confined these liints and sketches to the first decade in the history of 

*A printed copy of this Constitution, together with the record of its adoption and the 
first meeting of the Board of Managers, may l)e seen in the package of /ieport.i ami /-(i/Krn 
which Mr. S. C. Carter left "to the Treasurer for posterity," and which is now in tlie 
Jiands of the present Superintendent, Mr. W. W. Hunt. 



48 

the College, and these might have been made fuller. 1 would have liked 
especially to sketch the lives and characters of some of the prominent 
men — such men as Dr. Parsons, Noah Webster, Samuel Fowler Dick- 
inson, Hezekiah Wright Strong and Rufus (Graves, wHo, while the}' 
were leaders in the church and parish, were preeniiuentl}^ the founders 
of the College. But I have not time to write, nor 3'ou to hear, the 
record of then- self-den3nng, self-sacrificing, patriotic, philanthropic 
and Christian services. Besides, their biographies have alread}' been 
written as part and parcel of the history of Amherst College and will 
doubtless occup}' a prominent place in the discourses and addresses 
of this centennial celebration. 

As tlie college and the town have grown in numbers and resources 
since the first decade, they have of necessity ceased to hold just the 
same intimate and familiar relations. But they have never ceased to 
be mutually friendly, helpful and useful. Not only have the good peo- 
ple of Amherst furnished a site, a home and a hearty welcome to the 
faculty and the students of all our educational institutions but they 
have always been the foremost to contribute in one way and another 
to the buildings, the funds and the pecuniary necessities of the Acad- 
emy, of Amherst College and of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 
lege. Witness the generous subscription to the building and the 
books of the Library of Amherst College which, beginning as such 
subscriptions usually have, in the First C'hurch and l^irish of Amherst, 
extended to the other parishes of this and several neighboring towns, 
gave the College not only a new lil)rarv building but a new epoch in 
its general prosijerity, and at the sanu^ time secured to the ministers 
of all these parishes the right to draw books from the Library free 
and forever on the same conditions as the faculty and the students. 
Witness also the liberal contribution to the founding of the Agricul- 
tural College which the t(jwn raised by tax, and thus served itself 
while at the same time it subserved the interests of the Commonwealth 
and the cause of agricultural education. Nor can 1 refrain in this 
connection from a more particular reference to Amherst Academy, 
the eldest daughter of the church, of which Amherst College was an 
offshoot, which received its dowei' partly indeed from the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts but chiefly from the cluuch and the good 
people of Amherst — a fa\'orite daugiitei', of which tlie mother was 
justly proud, for in her prime Amherst Academy occupied the fore- 
most place among the Academies of the state, and in tiie year when I 
was conue(^ted with it as a teacher, sent thirty students to College, 



49 

most of them to Amherst. Nor must I forget to speak of the High 
School, the successor of the Academy, of which also Amherst may 
well be proud ; uor of the Grammar and Commou Schools alt of which 
she cherishes with a mother's self-denying, self-sacrificing love and 
care, and therein most wisely and truly loves and cares for herself, 
thus proving that "Self-love and social are the same." May the 
relations of the Church and the Educational Institutions of Amherst 
always be mutually pleasant and profitable, and may they never cease 
to illustrate the saying that benevolence is twice blessed, richly bless- 
ing the grateful receiver and blessing still more abundantly the cheer- 
ful giver. Let the church and the town ever be the atmosphere — an 
atmosphere of life and health and purity and peace, in which our 
schools and C oUeges all live and move and have their being, and let 
the schools and Colleges ever be the vital element in that atmosphere, 
like the oxygen in the air we breathe, or like the sunshine which 
imparts light and life to every person, place and thing that comes 
within the sphere of its influence. 



f^EPI^ESENTAiITIYE MEN OP IPHE PAI^ISH, 

GHUr^GH buiijDings and PINANGES. 



By W. a. niCKINSON. 



I have been asked to say what I can in twenty minutes of Represen- 
tative Men of the Parish, Church Buildings and Finances. 

In the very limited time at my command since the request came to 
me, and with the scanty and scattered sources of information within 
reach, 1 have been able to put together what amounts to hardly more 
than notes for a proper paper, and these not full, perhaps not always 
accurate, but such as it is. 

The First Church in Amherst was built in the years l<S(i7 — 8 and is 
the building in which we now are. Before that we had meeting-houses 
and went to meeting. 

The first meeting-house was built just before 1740 when town and 
parish were one and the same, and was built by levy upon all the 
inhnl)itants within the town or parish territorial limits. The support 
of religion then was by law imperative upon every man, as much as 
the support of schools. The Meeting House was the Town House. 

The town meeting under Ihe same warrant considered and acted 
upon ecclesiastical and secular mutters, raised the salary of the min- 
ister nnd other expenses incident to the conducting of public worship 
with its other monies. The leaders in the town were the letiders in 
the parish. 

This fii-st meeting-house stood on the hill known now as College 
Hill, on the site at present occupied by the College Observatoiy, then 
about the centre of the common. 'J'he vote to build it was passed in 
December, 1735, but work seems not to have been conuuenced upon 
it till nearly three years after, and the building not to have been fin- 
ished for fifteen j'ears more, though meetings were held in it in 1711. 



51 

It was to be, and I suppose was, uobody knows to the contrary, 45 
feet in length by 35 in breadth, covered with quarter boards of spruce, 
corresponding to our chipboards, the roof of spruce shingles 21 
inches long and without sap : the framing, which was an affair by 
itself, cost 19£, and it took 77 shillings' worth of rum and sugar to 
raise it. 

There were but few pews, and these were against the walls under 
the galleries — for it had galleries. The males were seated together upon 
one side and the females together upon the other side. No likeness 
of the structure exists — photography was not then dreamed of, and 
drawing was an unpractised, if not an unknown art to the then occu- 
pants of this ground. We know it had no bell. The signal for gath- 
ering was from a conch. There was no organ, no musical instrument 
of any kind, no carpets, no heat or light except what came from the 
sun. The people came through the snow two, three, four, five miles, 
women riding on pillions behind their husbands or brothers, and sat 
througli a long sermon in the forenoon, another in the afternoon, with 
no Avarmth except from the coals in the foot stoves obtained from the 
ample fire-places of those living near by. Mr. Parsons preached. 
His salary was 40£ a year — reckoned in the currency of the present 
about S133 — and his wood ; which averaged 100 loads, went sometimes 
as high as 120. It was raised from time to time till in 1757 it had 
reached ^200, and in 1764 it was raised to $266.66, though if money 
became scarce he was to receive it in wheat at 3 shillings 7 pence per 
bushel and rye at 2 shillings 5 pence. 

The only other expenses, except some occasional repairs, were for 
blowing the conch and sweeping the meeting-house, for which for 
many years $3 a year was paid. 

In the latter part of Mr. Parsons' ministry^ or in 1771, the number 
of inhabitants had increased be3'ond the comfortable capacity of the 
meeting-house, and the matter of enlarging or building anew began 
to be discussed ; and then for the first time cropped out the jealousy of 
the centre which had gradually taken possession of some of the more 
ambitious and uneasy of those living further out, in all directions, 
and which resulted in a determined effort to divide the district — as it 
was then called — b}' an east and west line through the centre, building 
two new houses instead of one, and locating them, one at the north 
end, one at the south, making the centre the outskirts — and so far as 
voting went they were the winners ; but to do this they must have 
authority from the Legislature, and here they failed ; the remonstrants 



from the centre having little ditiiculty in securing- an order staying all 
proceedings relative to building of any new meeting-house or meeting- 
houses in the district except upon or near where the old house stood. 
This was in 1773. The condition of the country was growing excited 
and absorbing. The war came on and nothing was done till it was 
over, and till December, 17-S7. Meanwhile in 1782, on the pretext 
of opposition to the settlement of the second minister. Dr. Parsons, 
son of the former minister, 22 members of the church from the north, 
south and east, more especially from the north and east, had under 
the lead of Capt. Mattoon, who had been in the war, was then 27 
years of age, and brought back with him the temper of revolution, 
seceded and formed a separate parish, known as the East St. parish. 
There was a long toil to this and the last of it had hardly disappeared 
at the end of a century, but this is not the place to talk of it. 

In a parish meeting held in December, 1787, it was voted to build a 
new meeting-house on the hill where the old then stood — that it should 
be set upon hewn stone — should be 65 feet long and of proportionate 
breadth — that it should be erected, enclosed and the lower story glazed 
within twelve months — and the way in which it should be accomplished 
was elaborately set out and provided for, and a committee of nine 
appointed to make all preliminary preparations — to make a particular 
estimate of the value of the several sticks of timber, their particu- 
ular length and bigness and the number necessary to compose the 
frame proposed — also an estimate of the boards, shingles, sash, win- 
dow frames, stuff and slit work — with a particular description of their 
length, bigness, and quantit}-, with a descriptive price affixed thereto 
— also of the nails and glass necessary Avith a price for the same — and 
also the number of feet of hewn stone necessary for the underpinning, 
with a i)rice for the same — '•'and said committee are directed to divide 
the Inhabitants of the i)arish aforesaid as equally as may be into eight 
classes, with a descriptive list of each and every one's proportion of 
all and every article necessary for carrying into effect the aforemen- 
tioned votes. And it shall l)e the duty of the committee aforesaid to 
assign to each class and individual of classes their rt'spective propor- 
tion of every article which may be necessary for eri'cting and linishing 
tlie proposed house. The connnittee aforesaid are further directed to 
assign to tlie list aforesaid to each and evei'y one his and their pro- 
portion of III! labor supposed to be necessary in framing, that each 
class may do their i)ro])ortion thereof — provided tiuit those men pro- 
posed to be employed in framing by the classes or cither of them be 



53 

iipproved by the master of the frame." And very much more, in 
<letail. The Building Committee was not selected till the May follow- 
ing and consisted of Simeon Strong, Esq., Capt. Kli Parker, Elijah 
Dickinson, Daniel Kellogg and Zebina JNIontague. 

June 18th it was voted to take the old house down the next Monday, 
and a conmiittee of five appointed to superintend it — but to be taken 
down without cost to the parish — another conmiittee of three to take 
care of the timber and dispose of the old stuff which could not be 
used in the new house — and that the spectators be served on raivsing 
days at the frame with cake and cheese and liquor at the parish 
expense — that the meeting-house committee appoint such a number 
of men as they think proper to wait on the spectators — and that the 
raisers have a good and decent entertainment made for them at the 
parish expense. 

In September leave was given to individuals by subscription to build 
a belfry over the porch proposed to be built on the west side of the 
meeting-house ; and this appears to have been done, for in July, 1791 
they voted to finish the internal part of the lielfry in a decent manner, 
with two flights of stairs from the lower floor to the first landing place, 
and that the present standing committee be a committee to effectuate 
the above vote ; and 40£ was appropriated for the purpose. 

They got into the house to hold a parish meeting in November, but 
the galleries were not put in till the next summer, and the inside was 
not finished until 1791, under a contract made with Mr. Samuel Abby 
Dec. 31st, 1789 ; who in a long and carefully worded paper agreed to 
finish it in a decent and elegant manner, and within two years ; for 
which the parish stipulated to give him 'iO bushels of rye at three 
shillings to the bushel, and twelve bushels and a-half of Indian corn 
at two shillings and five pence by the bushel within one month, and 
two barrels of pork as pork is barreled for market within one month 
and to be paid three hundred and sixty pounds, deducting therefrom 
the price of said grain and pork, the said sum to be paid in the fol- 
lowing manner, that is to say, one hundred pounds to be paid in cat- 
tle or grain, cattle to be delivered at the value in money by the fif- 
teenth day of October next, grain to be delivered at usual price by 
the first day of Fel)ruary in the year 17!)1 — anothei' hundred pounds 
to be paid in cattle or grain at the like jjrices — cattle to be delivered 
by the fifteenth day of October, 17!)1, grain to be delivered by the 
first day of February, 17!)2; the residue of the three hundred and 
sixty pounds to be paid within one year after the work shall be com- 



54 

pleted — with interest from the time that the work shall be completed 
until paid. 

In Januarys 1 7112 it was voted to raise four pounds to procure a 
" Gushing" for the pulpit, and in December, 1794 to raise four 
pounds to dress the pulpit in addition to the four pounds that was 
granted in 17'J2 for the "cushing." 

In December, 1792 it was voted to raise a hundred pounds to buy 
a bell, and in April, 1793 to pay Mr. Samuel Abby an additional 
fifty pounds to the first contract for his cost in finishing the meeting- 
house, and by this time, I believe, they considei-ed it somewhere near 
done, though they added what they styled a cupola to it as late as 
1815 at an expense of $100 — and then it was considered one of the 
finest meeting-houses in the region. 

It was entered by doors on three sides, south, east and west. The 
pu]i)it was on the north, in the centre of one of the broad sides, about 
on a level with the gallery ; over it hung the sounding-board. The 
deacons' seat directly under and in fi'ont, where the deacons sat 
facing the audience. The singers occupied the long gallery opposite ; 
the boys the one on the right and the girls that to the left — this from 
1801. Tithing-men were appointed to keep them in order, and often, 
it is said, themselves made as much disturbance as if engaged in 
quelling a riot. 

1 do not find the vote in the Amherst records, but in Iladley the 
town voted that there should be some sticks set up in several places 
in the meeting-house with some fit persons placed b}^ them, and to use 
them as occasion shall require to keej) the youth from disorder." That 
the sticks were used here is within the memory of some now living. 

This was the status at the time the college was established in 1S21. 
Providing seats for the accommodation of faculty and students wrought 
considerable change, and out of the new conditions in the course of a 
few years more the question of a new place of worship wiis often n\> ; 
and at a parish meeting held Tuesday, .Iniiuary <Sth, 1.S2.S, ;i vote was 
passed to build a new house, provided suHicient funds for the purpose 
could be raised by a previous sale of pews, a connnittee api)()iuted to 
take tlie mattei' into consideration, and repoit at ;in ndjoui-ned meet- 
ing. The committee were Klij:di Uoltwood, Knos IJaker, Lucius Bolt- 
wood, Horace KeUogg, Klij:Ui NmsIi, John Leahind and David Dexter, 
and they reported nine days after, .Ian. 17, advising to l)uild, and to 
build on land offered by the coUege, 10 rods square, on the north-east 
corner of the farm lately owned by the heirs of the Rev. David Par- 



55 

sons. They also brought in a ph^n of a building 80x65 feet, with 124 
pews on the "Tound floor, the cost of which they estimated at 86,500 ; 
and in further pursuance of their instructions the}' reported a series 
of regulations to govern the management of the property, among them 
one that 

"The parish shall have no right to allow town meetings to be held 
in said house." 

These had always been held in the old house, and there had been 
no other place. 

Another that 

" No person shall sell or lease his or her pew to any black or 
mulatto — or to any person of infamous character — or shall in any waj' 
alter or deface the external appearance thereof." 

The report of the committee was adopted without qualiflcatiou or 
amendment, plan, regulations and all, and the meeting was adjourned 
to the next Tuesday, 22nd, for the sale of pews. On coming together 
at that time the}' voted to adjourn immediately to Boltwood's Hotel, 
and then the sale commenced Avith Col. Smith for auctioneer. This 
was after a while adjourned to the next Monday, 28th, to meet tit the 
same place, then to Feb. 11th, then 25th, then to March loth, then 
20th, when for some reason which does not appear, the sale was begun 
ancAv, with Luke Sweetser auctioneer, and proceeded till at the adjourn- 
ment pews had been bid off to the amount of $5,427. April 21, with 
those sold at private sale between times, the footing reached $6,635 ; 
something more than the estimated cost of the building. 

The new house was commenced. Col. Rowland was designer and 
builder, and had it finished in season for the commencement exercises 
of 182'J. It was a substantial structure, is still, and may have ful- 
filled the hope and purpose of the buUding committee ; though archi- 
tecturally it could hardly have been thought an inspiration even then, 
and the discussions were many among the students as to the age and 
order which it represented. It was more commonly classed as Tuscan, 
that being the most elementar}^ described in the books ; but by some 
to be back of books — ancient Egyptian. This was the claim of Tutor 
March of the class of 1845, while one of the French professors in the 
early days pronounced it the P^lighth Astonishment. Originally it had 
a large portico in front, supported by giant pillars standing upon a 
stone platform. Otherwise it was much the same as now. Inside the 
pulpit was a close Ijox reached by a long flight of narrow stairs on 
either side, though about 1840 this was taken down and a really hand- 



r.6 

some raahoguny affair substituted. The pews all had doors, and 
every man was buttoned tight in. The high-sided pews for the blacks 
and mulattoes were located in the fuither corners of the house, over 
the gallery stairs. 

Stoves seem not to have been introduced till 1833, for in December 
of '32, according to the records, a committee was appointed to see if 
means could be provided for heating the meeting-house, and at a 
meeting held on the 31st of the same month it was voted that 

"Consent be and hereby is given to place stoves in the meeting- 
house provided that they can be purchased and put up by subscrip- 
tion." And even then thej seem to have been set in what we should 
call the vestibule ; for in 1835 ; two years later ; it was voted to remove 
the partition wall in the space of the meeting-house for the purpose 
of enclosing the stoves in the body of the house. As I remember 
them they stood within this circular wall, the pipes running the whole 
length of the side aisles directly over the centre, entering the chim- 
neys at the west end, with tin troughs underneath to catch the creo- 
sote which dropped from the joints. 

The basement was finished off after a fashion, and was used for 
town meetings, agricultural fairs, courts, auctions and other enter- 
tainments. Not for all other, however ; for in 1838 it was voted that 
the third article in the warrant relative to granting the use of the 
meeting-house for the purpose of holding lectures on the subject of 
slavery be dismissed. 

The same year individuals were given the privilege of erecting 
horse-sheds in the rear of the meeting-house, subject to the discretion 
of the parish committee. 

In 1839 the old and first bell which had somehow been injured, was 
exchanged for a new and larger one — the one now* on the Baptist church. 

Down to 1S62 this bell rang at noon and at 9 in the evening as 
notice for dining and retiring. At this time the evening bell was 
discontinued — but the noon not for some years more. 

In 1839 too came the acquisition of the first musical instrument 
ever owned b}^ the parish, a double bass viol. With my first recollec- 
tion Josiah Ayres managed it, and the tones he drew from its lower 
chords in his accompaniment to the singing of some of Watts' Favor- 
ite Hymns, haunt me even now. Such lines as 

"That awful day Avill surcily come," 

"That last irreat day of woe and doom," 
;uid 

•' Broad is the road that leads to death." etc., 




"^^^ 



A 






Third Meeting House. Built 182S. 



sermed to me sufficiontly (leprpssiiig' in phiiu print ; sung with the 
accompaniment, they were appalling — to a boy. 

Our next great move was in 1854 — 5, when the lecture room — as it 
was called — was built, just west of the meeting-house ; a modest, 
tidy structure of wood, plain, white, perhaps a little cold, but adapted 
to its purposes. 

In the same period we rose to a small second-liand organ. There 
was a great deal of doubt about this : there was a suggestion of Rome 
and Episcopacy in this instrument not brought up by the double bass 
viol, but some of the young people were very urgent, and it was 
decided to let it be tried. 

Things were running now on rather a high key, but the hunker 
element held in till IS')?, when it was proposed to raise seventj'-flve 
dollars to purchase four kerosene chandeliers to light the meeting- 
house. This was too much, a step too far for those who held religion 
rather as a matter for the practice of fine economy. They said it 
portended the theatre : they thought — as some of us believed — it 
would add to the burden of maintaining public worship ; and threats 
of signing off were loud if the unsanctity were persisted in : the air 
was thick : there was concern on the part of the movers in the 
project and hesitation, but somehow the breakers were cleared and 
the chandeliers hung. 

In 1861 we had so far recovered from the shock of this innovation 
that we bought the old Shepard house for a parsonage, paying, or 
giving a parish note for $2, :'>()() for it ; and all was proceeding 
quietly and peaceably, despite occasional talk of the need of thorough 
repairs and additions to the meeting-house, or building entirely anew, 
and ineffectual efforts in parish meetings to bring something in this 
direction to pass, till about 1864 when the question became more 
pressing and would not down. The story of the numberless meetings 
from that time on for the next two or three years, the different plans 
and sites proposed, varying views, till the adoption at last of the 
plan we followed — is full of interest but too long and the facts too 
recent to be recited here. Under the Lord's guidance, the stimulus 
of Mr. Jenkins' preaching and personality was the largest factor in the 
result, and yet the greater proportion of the people did their full part 
and did it cheerfully. It was accomplished not without effort, not 
without op[)osition, not without sacrifice ; but the effort did us ail good, 
and most thoso who did the most; for it is not what W(' hold l):u*k but 
what we give (jut that eni'iches us. Tlie entire i)ro|)erlv cost in ronnd 



58 

numbers $80,000. We eutered upon it with parish notes out to the 
amount of $38,000. To make sure of the extinction of these a few- 
persons contributed together the sum of $10,000 for a sinking fund 
to be used whenever it should have increased sufficiently for this 
purpose. This fullness of time was reached during the last year, and 
this church, built by our fatliers and their children, is now without debt. 
It stands here for the faith that is in many of us, for the hope and 
earnest aspiration that is in all ; it is our continuing confession, and 
unceasing prayer. Would that the fathers who sleep were with us 
to-day — that row Avho sat one behind the other on the north aisle. 

At the head, Luke Sweetser, for a generation exercising the largest 
influence in the affairs of both church and parish ; a successful busi- 
ness man, of bright and active mind, genial manner, a generous host, 
conscientious, believing religion a chief concern, hesitating before no 
duty as he saw it, conservative to a degree that commanded the 
confidence of those who saw safety only in the old ways, yet too 
intelligent not to be open to suggestions for improvement, and when 
convinced, ready and helpful in carrying them into execution ; not 
the first or among the first to feel the importance of a more fitting 
house of worship, but second to none when he came to it, in the time, 
energy and devotion he gave to making the undertaking a success. 

Edward Dickinson, proud of being of Ainherst soil, of the sixth 
generation born within sound <jf the old meeting-house bell, all earnest, 
God-fearing men, doing their part in their day toward the evolution 
of the Amhei'st we live in ; in the front from earliest manhood, prompt 
with tongue, pen, time, money, for anything promising its advance- 
ment, leading every forward movement, moral or material, in parish 
and town : holding many positions of trust and responsibility, never 
doubted, the soul of integrity and honor, fearless for the right, shirking 
no duty, and dying at his post as representative of his district in the 
Massachusetts Legislature where, in his seventy-second year, he had 
gone to help in shaping the legislation proposed affecting the interests 
of the Central railroad. 

L. M. Hills, who had but lately joined us, and joined with the distinct 
purpose of lending his strong hand to the carrying out the plans then 
in contemplation ; his coming, indeed, being the element which 
determined the shape they took, and counte<l upon to make them 
certain ; a sturdy man to look upon and of sturd}^ qualities, scpiare 
and honest in all his dealings, resolute, self-reliant, of ample means 
of his own ci'eation ; without these thi'ee men this chui'ch could not 



59 

have been built ; with either of them indifferent it could not. Their 
combined strength, influence and following only made it possible. 

Next in the row, perhaps next in importance, William Cutler, 
representative of one of the old and prominent families, the then 
leading merchant in the village, naturally slow and cautious, more apt 
to see objections than advantages — the course of events never quite to 
his mind — finding much to condemn, little to approve outside Daniel 
Webster and the old Whig party, but who went into the new church 
enterprise with a spirit that seemed almost like a revolution of himself, 
and carried many with him from the back seats, where the greatest 
confidence was felt in him, whom no one else could have moved. 

Then Sidney Adams, a life-long neighbor and friend of Mr. Cutler's, 
just his opposite in make-up, amiable, seeing only the sunn}' side, 
useless in a tempest, but using a good oar in smooth water, alwaj^s 
interested in the line of the best, and winning others to it by his 
pleasant, affable words and wa3's, and who gave his whole heart to 
this, as he thought and as it proved, the last great w^ork in which he 
was to have a part. 

But the membership of this parish has included strong and earnest 
men all through, and the names most prominent in the beginning, 
when towm and parish were the same, are in good part those most 
familiar to us now. The Bakers, Boltwoods, Clarks, Churches, 
Cowles, Dickinsons, Eastmans, Hawleys, Kelloggs, Montagues, 
Smiths, Strongs. With these were the Chauncej's, Colemans, Fields, 
Ingrams, Nashes, Porters, Warners, who, so far as I know, are 
unrepresented among us now. 

John Ingram headed the first petition of the people residing in what 
is now Amherst, to the (General Court, to be made a separate precinct ; 
the main object being to provide in the legal way for calling and 
supporting a minister of their own. This Avas not successful, but a 
second petition, headed by Zachariah Field, onh' six months later, was 
granted and the precinct boundaries fixed as the petition asked. 

The first meeting of the precinct was held at the house of Zachariah 
Field October 8, 1735, when Samuel Hawley was chosen moderator, 
John Nash clerk, Ebenezer Dickinson, Aaron Smith and John Nash 
assessors, and John Ingram, Samuel Boltwood and Samuel HaAvle}- 
committee to call precinct meetings. 

At this first meeting they voted to hire a minister half a year and to 
build a meeting-house; chose John Ingram, Jr., Jonathan Cowls 
and Dr. Nathaniel Smith to hire a minister, and Samuel Boltwood, 



60 

Ebenezer Dickinson, John Cowls, Pehitiah .Smith and John Ingram, 
J I'., to build the meeting-house. 

The precinct was made a district — an advance — in 1754 — Josiah 
Chauncey being the agent appointed by the precinct to appear before 
the General Court and urge the same. 

The first meeting of the district was held at the meeting-house JNIarch 
19 of that year, when Deacon Ebenezer Dickinson was moderator, 
Josiah Chauncey clerk, and Joseph Eastman treasurer ; Deacon Eben- 
ezer Dickinson, Jonathan Dickinson, John Dickinson, Dr. Nathaniel 
Smith and Moses Dickinson, selectmen ; Ebenezer Dickinson, Jonathan 
Dickinson and Moses Dickinson, assessors ; Gideon Dickinson, 
Daniel Dickinson, Nathaniel Dickinson, Ebenezer Mattoon and Jacob 
Warner, surveyors. 

The parish, as a parish, was organized not till 1783, under a call 
for a meeting for that purpose issued by Nathaniel Dickinson, when 
he was chosen moderator and his son Nathaniel clerk. At this 
meeting the general committee chosen were Capt. Eli Porter, Dr. 
Eleazer Smith, Martin Kellogg, Lt. Joel Billings and Thomas Hastings. 

I give the names of the men holding the otiices under the several 
organizations because in those days the people were willing and glad 
to choose their best men to serve them and the best men were willing and 
esteemed it honorable to serve. It is impossible within the limit 
assigned me to speak a separate word of all the really marked men. 
A few of the more constantly active and conspicuous were : 

Ebenezer Dickinson, grandson of the first Nathaniel who came from 
England in 1630, landed at Boston, settled in Wethersfield, was one of 
the five sent forward by the fifty-nine who met in Hartford in 
April, 1659, and engaged to transplant themselves, if C4od permit, to 
the plantation purchased on the east side of the river of Connecticut, 
beside Northampton, to lay out for them fifty-nine home lots ; the 
first Deacon here, as his grandfather had been there, one of the 
committee of three whose names appear upon the call to the lirst Mr. 
Parsons to settle here ; a man of serious nature, confident, direct, 
without doul)ts, with a natural aptitude for affairs, active, and always 
presC'ut in everything pertaining to the welfare of the church or 
(community. 

John Nash, of the same date, general style, and sterling (jualities, 
^'" assocaited with Mr. Dickinson as Deacon, on the committee to call the 
first minister, carrying always a full share of the duties and respon- 
sibilities of the time — few and simple to be sure, com{)ared with those 



61 

of the present — both were of the pure puritan ty[)e, of the kind for 
foundation men. 

In the same line Elisha Smith, Lt. .lolni Fiehl, Soh:)inon IJoltwood. 
Josiah Chauncey,who was in ahnost from the start, and one of the most 
independent, talented and facile of the early settlers, a believer in 
this world as well as the next ; son of Rev. Israel, second minister 
of Hadley ; great-grandson of Rev. Charles, president of Harvard 
College ; and his grandfather was offered the presidenc}"^ of Yale, but 
declined. He was Capt. of militia under the Crown, was the first 
justice of the peace in Amherst when that oftice meant something, in 
1758, and had the distinction of being the first man chosen from 
Amherst to the General Court, in 1760, and again in 1702, when 
Hadle}', South Hadley, Amherst and Granby together chose but one 
representative, and the first man chosen to represent the whole district 
not a resident of the old village of Hadley. 

The precedent was over-ridden a second time in the election of Simeon 
Strong to the same office in 17G7 and 1769 — h<? had been commissioned 
as justice of the peace in 1768 — he was a graduate of Yale in 1756, 
the first piofessional lawyer in the town, and as such consulted and 
employed in all matters involving legal knowledge and action ; rose to 
eminence, and at the time of his death in 1804 was associate justice 
of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He built and lived in the house 
at present occupied by Mrs. Emerson, on Amit}^ street. 

Seth Coleman, whose name appears upon about every page of the 
parish records from 1785 to near the time of his death in 1816, and 
who was clerk and treasurer of the parish continuously from 17.S5 to 
1808, was a graduate of Yale in 1765, a care full}' educated phj'sician, 
a man of scholarly and refined tastes, with more spirituality than most 
of those about him, whose interests and energies outside his profession 
seem to have centered largely in matters pertaining to the church, 
where his influence was always elevating. He lived in the old- 
fashioned, 3'ellow house, built by his father, Nathaniel Coleman, on 
the lot just north of Dr. Eigelow's present residence, on Xorth street, 
then eight or ten feet above the present level, a beautiful, natural 
mound, which escaped the march of improvement till sometime after 
1840. 

Eli Parker, born in 1746, living till 182!), was in at the first and 
among the foremost, having a part in everything which was going on 
about him. He was a military man, too, and he, with Reuben 
Dickinson, were the two active captains from Amherst in the Conti- 
nental army. 



62 

Moses Dickinson, born in 1718, who lived to be eighty-five, equally 
prominent in affairs of church and state, at the head of almost all the 
important committees, inchiding that of the standing committee of 
correspondence with the Boston committee just before and early in 
the war ; delegate from Amherst to the various conventions of the 
time, and representative to the General Court ; second to none in the 
best qualities of citizenship. His son, Elijah, not the equal of his 
father but with many of his qualities, and a man of importance ; was 
a colonel in the State Militia. He built the house where John White 
now lives, just south of the college, owned that farm, and gave from 
it the land where all the earlier college buildings were erected. 

Ebenezer Boltwood, graduate of Harvard in the class of 1752, 
merchant, a man of quiet tastes but public spirit. 

Daniel Cooley, an educated man also, delegate to the first convention 
that met in Boston in 178(S to consider the proposed United States 
Constitution, representative to the General Court, and serving the 
town in various other capacities. 

Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., who perhaps was the most virile and 
popular Amherst man of his generation to Amherst men, unless the 
honors may have been even between him and Ebenezer Mattoon, who 
greatly resembled him in many ways ; the one a graduate of Harvard 
in '71, educated as a lawyer; the other a graduate of Dartmouth in 
'76, both high-spirited, bold, defiant, of the precise mould and mettle 
for revolution, and entering into it with a zeal to delight the heart of 
old John Adams ; holding every manner of office, never out of it, 
Dickinson holding to the civil line, JNIattoon being also quite a figure 
in the military ; — the traditions of these men, their peculiar indepen- 
dence and freedom from the restraints of conventionalism under 
provocation, are fuller than of any of their contemporaries. 

Zebina INIontague — and Luke his cousin ; in business together, their 
store standing directly across the present Main Street in front of the 
Montague place, where Luke lived ; Zebina in the house built by him- 
self, just iiround the corner, and destroyed by fire in the blizzard of 
March, LS.SS, where the new Town Hall stands ; Luke rathei- an indoor 
man ; Zebina giving his time to the public : a captain, colonel and 
general in the militia, and representing the town ten years, nine con- 
secutively, in the Legislature. 

Enos Baker, father of Alfred, Osmyn, (ieorge and Enos. 

William Boltwood, father of Lucius. 



63 

Dr. Robert Cutler, the leadiiio- local physician of his time, greatly 
esteemed and beloved. 

Noah Webster, whose fame is coexteusive with the English lang- 
uage — was a resident of Amherst but ten years, 1812 to 1822, but in 
those years no man was a larger part of it than he. Notwithstanding 
the drain upon his time and strength by his literar}' and philological 
studies, he neglected no duties of citizenship ; was alive to ever}' 
public interest, always in parish meeting, always in town meeting, 
moderator frequently of both ; represented the town three j^ears in the 
Legislature ; wrote addresses for a variety of occasions, as he was 
called upon ; setting an example which might be followed to advantage 
by our literary and professional men of the present day. He was a 
general favorite with all classes. 

Samuel Fowler Dickinson ; familiarly called p]sq. Fowler ; who stood 
in the forefront in the Amherst of his generation ; a fine scholar ; a 
lawyer of distinction and wide practice ; a man of rare public spirit, 
the highest moral purpose, unflagging zeal ; the leader in every local 
enterprise ; holding many otKces of trust, a dozen years and more a 
member of the Massachusetts Legislature, in both houses ; of the most 
earnest and active religious faith and life, a deacon at twenty and 
for forty 3'ears thereafter, one of the leading founders of the college, 
sacrificing for it his property, time and professional opportunities, 
in the idea of getting the Gospel sooner to the ends of the earth. 

H. AVright Strong, son of Judge Simeon Strong ; lawyer b}- pi'ofes- 
sion, but without disposition to confine himself to the drudgery of 
practice : liking a more open field, with freer play and greater variety : 
attracted to the new, and larger; sanguine, energetic, tireless in push- 
ing whatsoever he had enlisted in ; his home a centre of graceful and 
refined hosi)itality ; ranked by Prof. Tyler in his history as standing 
with Mr. Dickinson as one of the "three working founders" of the 
college. In the latter part of his life, postmaster under both Jackson 
and Van Bureu. 

Dr. Rufus Cowles, graduate of Dartmouth in 17i)2; large land- 
owner, a sort of natural baron ; bluff, heart}^ generous ; full of force 
and of the unrestrained individuality so prevalent in his time ; at the 
front and with the best in everything affecting the prosperity of 
Amherst ; owned and lived in the house on North Street at present 
occupied by L. D. Cowles — he is remembered traditionally by his hos- 
tility to the introduction of stoves into the meeting-house, on the 
ground of their vitiating the air. and his peculiar way of exhil»iting it. 



64 

David I'arsons, son of Dr. Parsons, full of the Parsons quaintness 
and oddity, startling- ut times in the bluntness of his expressions. 

Calvin Merrill, who built the house on the east side of the common 
known now as the old Merrill house ; and John P^astman, men less 
demonstrative, taking less room, but no less etHcient ; not captains, 
but most faithful lieutenants. 

Joseph Church, Jr., too, working close by their side. 

Dr. Isaac G. Cutler, inheriting the talent and practice of his father. 

These reach through the old regime, the four-score years of the 
Parsons', and bring us to comparatively modern times, or about the 
time of the establishment of the college. Some of them into the new 
period ; one of them, the elder Dr. Cutler, is kept fresh by the anec- 
dote told of him, that selected for his great courtesy, suave manners 
and his years to carry to Dr. Clark, successor to Dr. Parsons, some 
complaints made of him, among others the length of his sermons, 
when Dr. Clark answered that he was commanded to preach the 
Gospel, he replied, that he understood that fact, but that they didn't 
want it all at once. 

Among those who have stood for the most in later years, the names 
of John Leland, Lucius Boltw^ood, Simeon Clark and David Mack 
should be added to the previous roll. 

Deacon Leland, as we always called him, for he was deacon here 
30 years, moved here from Peru in Berkshire County, where his 
father was minister, in 1820, and nt once identified himself with 
everything here ; was an intelligent, liberal, public-spirited citizen, 
prompt to help in whatever promised to advance the interests of town, 
education or religion ; he was one of the early friends and benefactors 
of the college, was its first treasurer, was among the most helpful in 
securing the first railroad into Amherst, and served some j^ears for 
Amherst in both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature. 

Lucius Boltwood, grandson of Solomon Boltwood, one of the first 
settlers ; was a lawyer, of considerable property ; another of the early 
friends of the college ; secretary of the Board of Trustrees for many 
years. Commissioner of the Charitable Fund also ; familiar with every 
page of its history, and rendering it much and valuable service ; of a 
great deal of mannt'r, overtlowiug with good humor, remembering 
everything he ever heard, and with sliglit prompting from Mrs. Boltwood 
everything that ever occurred ; of sincere convictions and the courage 
of them; one of the original abolitionists and I think tlie first candi- 
date of the old Liberty party for Governor; a staunch parishioner; 
liking all improvements, and ready to do liis part in them. 



65 

!Shni.'on Clark, with two generations behind iiini of the same name, 
long time deacon, was one of the modest men, of more than ordinary 
intelligence, whose candor, good judgment and practical Christianity, 
with his faithfulness to every duty, made his opinions always sought 
and respected even by those mentally his superiors. He was one of 
the permanent factors in all church and parish affairs, and in those of 
the town as well. 

General Mack was a man to command attention anywhere, tall, 
erect, of powerful build, with a fine head finely set, clear, exact, just, 
a believer in law anil penalty for its breach ; strong as a lion, pure as 
a saint, simple as a ciiild, a Puritan of the Puritans : I remembei- my 
first sight of him — I was four years old — I thought I liad seen (iod. 
He was moral and spiritual tonic to any comnumity he entered. 

There are others in luimber whom it would be a pleasure to recall 
did time permit. Characters used to be more plenty than they are 
now. 

There was Ivies Eastman, worthily bi-aring one of the best old fam- 
ily names ; living upon his farm a mile to the north : a director in tiie 
old Amherst Bank. 

Alfred Baker, foundei' of the Hampshire Agricultural Societv. 

Tim Henders(^n, Chester Kellogg — clouds Hed before their cheer. 

Judge John l)i(;kinson, with his kingly haughty head. 

The portly form of Cotton Smith. 

Billings (rreen, pnre mindecl. sweet hearted. 

(xood Deacon (laylord. 

S. C. Carter, alert, bright, a sunny face and pleasant word foi' 
fvei'vone : always full of statistics, ready and iielpful everywhere : a 
youth iu heart at eighty. 

Sam Nash, direct desc-endant of Dea. John Nash, brightest minded 
of all the generations of XasJi ; brought up a farmer ; making liimself 
an editor ; something of a [)olitician of the Itetter sent. ; respected for 
his talent, his enterprise and his aims ; founded tlie Hampshire and 
Franldht Express, from which, in a narrower field, the Amherst Record. 

The Hawleys, over there, Hezekiah, Zachariah and Levi. 

The Cowles's, Silas aixl David and Daniel and Elijah, all good and 
true men. 

Long-time Depnty Sheritf Palmer, honest as the day, and in ihe 
duties of his ollice the best jjosted deputy of the county. 

Dr. (Tridley, tiiat strange, queer, eccentric, fascinating man ; doc- 
tor, politician ; hated, admired, distrusted, believed to carry life in his 

y 



66 

hand ; apparently not knowing day from night, that Sunday came 
the same day every thne, his own house from another's ; who wouldn't 
go straight if he could go across : regular only in being irregular ; a 
most picturesque character. 

But I must stop somewhere — and it might as well be here. 

The change and progress from the first rude wooden meeting-house 
on the hill to the fair proportions of this stone church on the slope, 
fairly measure the growth and progress in wealth, taste, possibly cul- 
ture, in tlie town and in the country all tlu-ough, in the same time. 

Has manhood gaine<l — is that more vigorous, purer, loftier now 
than formerly? Is it up to the best that has been? Granting that the 
highest standard and type exist — we cannot fail to perceive that we 
arc counting fewer and fewer in numbers of the kind of men that save 
cities. The tendency to centralization — increasing constantly in the 
last fifty years — drains the country of its most enterprising sons, and 
is reducing it to much the same condition in this respect as the drafts 
for the civil war reduced the South. 

Those independent, strong characters — men of mark — who used to 
be scattered over our hills — ministers, lawyers, doctors — are not to be 
found there now. They are at the fi'ont — in the cities — in the strug- 
gle for wealth and power and fniue — a struggle as fierce and desper- 
ate as the struggle of battle. 

This is inevitable in the nature of things for tin* present — it may 
not always be so. While it is, the t(jwn or parisli of this size that 
holds its own is the exception, and must be surrounded by most 
favoring circumstances, ^^'e should not have done this here, if indeed 
we have — if it iiad rested with the men alone. 

But the wom(>n count in our modern census. Tlu-y have appeared 
above the surface in tlie hist generation, and bcconu' :i power, nowhere 
more than in parish afl'airs. where they have found a congenial field 
for their activities and displayed them to good advantage. We no 
longer go home and tell tliem what we have done at |):irisii meeting; 
they tell us what they iiavi' done at the sewing society. They are 
hardly longer the power l)eliind tlie tln'oui' ; they are a good part of 
tlie thi'oue itself. 

It is not quite easy foi- :i masculine nvAU to admit all this; but if he 
will live in the country, lu' might as well — and thank (iod for salva- 
tion even so. 



MATTEI^IAL PI^OGf^ESS OP ONE HIINDI^BD 
AND PIPT^Y YEAI^S IN AMHEI^S^F. 



By HENHY F. hills. 



On*.' luiiulrc'd and tifty years ago (17;U>) theiv were only "J'.l liou.si'- 
liolders or settlers here, as follows : 



.loseph Clary, 
.lohn Ingram, 8r., 
Kbenezer Kellogg, 
.lohn Ingram, Jr., 
John C'owles, 
Zachariah Field, 
Samuel Boltwood, 
Samuel Hawley, Sr. 
Joseph Hawley, 
( harles C'hauncey. 
Stephen Smith, 
Nathaniel Smith. 
William Murray, 
Nathan Moody, 



.Samuel Hawley, Jr.. 
F^benezer Dickinson. 
Joseph Wells, 
Jonathan Atherton. 
Samuel Boltwood, 
John Nash, 
Aaron Smith, 
Nathaniel Smith, 
Richard Chauncey. 
John Perry, 
Nathaniel Church, 
Ebenezer Williams, 
John Morton, 
Moses Smith. 



Pelatiah Smith. 

Tliese "21> householders had 35 ratable polls and were in possession 
of 49 horses, 3!t oxen, 52 cows and a few swine. 

They altogether had 3o0 acres of improved land, or land that had 
been cleared of the original forest, and there were six non-resident 
land owners whose lands under cultivation aggregated 48 acres. 

All of the improved land in town, in the year 1739, amounted to no 
more than 400 acres, or a tract just about the size of the Agricultural 
College fai-m. Kbenezer Kellogg was the largest landholder ;it that 
time, holding 48 acres. 

J am indebted to Mi-. C. O. Pjirmcnter for valuahlo assistance in the ineparaiion of this 
paper. -H. F. h. 



08 

Xttw, iuHtt'ud of o.')0, thi'iv are iiioiv than 1 (),()()() acres of improved 
land, and 1,82!) person.s are assessed, upon a real and personal valu- 
ation of $8,-28s,0()(). 

Our fanners boast of more than 1,400 of the finest dairy eows, and 
every week several tons of the choicest butter are made by two suc- 
cessful creameries. 

In 1 7So there were live taverns and eight other places for tin' sale 
of intoxicating- drink in Amherst — with not more than 700 inhaliitants. 
Besides these, there was a distillery in the ravine (back of President 
Seelye's residence) where 3,000 barrels of cider were made into brandy 
yearly. Surely we have made progress in the matter of temperance. 

The first recorded vote to build school-houses was in 17(;i , but none 
were l)uilt until 1764, owing to quarrels as to location. 

The yvAV 1 7()"» marks the establishment of the first public school in 
town, and the appropriation was about $100. In that year Josiah 
Pierce, a Harvard graduate, opened a school on the 27th of October, 
and taught six months in the 3'ear '•'•hetwee)) the middle sch'/ol-houffes," 
the expression probably meaning that he divided his time between 
school-houses in P2ast and West Streets. It must be remembered that 
he taught boys only, girls not being allowed to attend school at that 
time, nor for years after. 

The city of Boston did not admit girls to the public schools until 
about 1700, and Northampton, now proud of its college for young- 
women, with nearly 500 students, did not think it proper for girls lo 
attend the jjublic schools until about 1<S02. 

Sch(Jolmaster Pierce with a college education could command but 
$5.3;') per month as compensation, and was obliged to teach a "cipher- 
ing school" during the winter, at one shilling per evening; also to 
pi-each as opportunity offered, at 18 or 20 shillings per Sunday. 

That he failed to live sumptuously is inferred from the record, for 
it says, "He dismissed his school in disgust, March 2!>th, 17()1).'' 

Such is the record of the first attempts at public school education 
in town ; and we need only to point to our present public school sys- 
tem, with an annual appropriation of $8,000 to $10,000, — and to our 
public school-houses scattered at convenient points about town, — with 
our school superintendent and corps of well-equipped and well-paid 
teachers, and 700 pupils in attendance, — to convince the most scepti- 
cal of the progressive strides which we have made since Josiah Piei-ce 
gave up his work in disgust 120 years ago. 

In 1814, Amherst Academy began its educational work, and "oh- 



69 

taiued a reputation second to none in the State."* " It attracted 
pupils from every part of New England," but became more local in 
its work, and finally gave way to the high scliool. 

In ^lay of the yeai' IS^O, work Avas begun upon the Amherst Col- 
lege buildings. The contest for locati(jn had been severe and persist- 
ent, but the people of Amherst won then, as, in l.S(;7. tliey did in the 
struggle for the location of the Agricultural College. 

Labor and nu\terial were freely given by the most public-s[)irited 
citizens; and one still among us, then about ten years old, Capt. M. 
F. Dickinson, remembers helping his father draw sand used in the 
construction of the first building. Mr. Zachariah Hawley of Hadley, 
now living, remembers drawing stone at the same time. 

One building after another has been added to Amherst College, 
and the funds have accumulated until the whole propert}' amounts to 
more than 81,000,000. It has educated more than 2,400 men. 

The Agricultural C'ollege was founded in 18(i7. The town contrib- 
uted Sr)0,000 after the State had located it here. Its present proi)erty 
and funds are valued at $500,000. 

With M(\ students in Amherst College, 115 in the Agricultural Col- 
lege, and over 500 |)upils in onr public schools, Amherst shows mate- 
rial progress in educational advantages since Josiah Pierce gave up his 
work in 1769. 

In 1767, Simeon Smith (son of Moses Smith, tavern-keeper on the 
Bay-road) began teaming to IJoston, being the first to drive through 
with a wagon, and more than a week was consumed in the trip — while 
now the railroad delivers to us in the morning freight that was loaded 
inl3oston the night before, and frequent passenger trains take us to 
Boston or New York in a few hours with a comfort greatly in contrast 
with the saddle of 178'.), and the teams of 1767 — while the vast net- 
work of railroads, reaching throughout the land and into Canada on 
the north and Mexi(u) in the far south, put us in quick and easy com- 
munication with all this vast domain, the greater portion of which, in 
1739, was the home only of the Aborigines. 

About the year 1815, only once a week, a man on horseba(;k brought 
the mail for the entire town to Postmaster Rufus Kellogg at East 
Amherst, and the blowing of a horn or conch shell summoned the 
farmer-postmaster from the field to open the mail. 

To-day eight incoming mails, and as many outgoing, are necessary 
to accommodate our people, while the telegraph and telephone put us 
in instant communication with nearly the entire civilized world. 

*W. S. Tyler's History of Amherst College. 



70 

The letters we have read this morning were Avritten in Boston last 
evening, — in Chicago yesterday, oi in San Francisco only a few days 
ago, while any that Simeon Smith might have brought from far-away 
Boston, were a week old before his lumbering wagon could make the 
journey home. 

The beautiful Village Common is one of the most notable of the 
signs of progress. Many here will contrast its j)resent beauty with 
its unsightly appearance .30 or 40 years ago, made up as it then was 
of swampy ground, ^frog pond, and general unevenness and signs of 
neglect. 

Amherst lins grown. Its well funiislu'd stores and fine markets 
abundantly supply the ever increasing wants of its people ; its two 
large straw-hat manufacturies disburse $100,000 or more annually : 
and, together with its paper, lumber, carriage and other works, fur- 
nish emploj'uient to several hundred people. 

Our Savings Bank, with its nearly $1,300,000 of deposits, and our 
National Bank, with its more than $200,000 of capital and surplus, 
nearly all the savings of our own people, are evidence of our progress 
in material things : while the nearly !K)0 substantial, well-kept, and 
tasteful homes give evidence of increased comfort and prosperity. 

We should not forget, in the abundant progress of wealth and coni- 
fort, which God has thus given us, that the same sun just as brightly 
as now the Pelham horizon in the morning shone down f romupon those 
Pioneers of loO years ago, and its departing rays lighted up the rug. 
ged hills to the East just as gorgeously — but otherwise how changed I 
Instead of a little clearing of a few acres, a most beautiful town, and 
growing each year more attractive I 

The Past is full of TNIaterial Progress, and are we not riglit in 
anticipating for every future anniversary occasion still greater evidence 
of advancement in everything that tends to make our town sought 
out and noted, not only for its beautiful location, surroundings and 
educational advantages, but also for its advancement in good morals 
and everything that tends to the welfare of its j)eople I 



I^EMINISGENGES. 



PAPBI^ 

By rev. AARON M. COLTON. 
Ordained June 10, 1840, Dismissed Jan. 4, 1853. 



The authorities here bid me use the utmost freedom in personal 
reminiscence. The egotism involved must be borne with. 

Well remember my first joiirnev hither ; specially the ri<le from 
Palmer ; the muddy roads ; the shell and shackle of a coach, with 
more than a mild flavor of antiquity about it; harness giving out 
three times before we reached Belchertown ; our Jonathan of a driver 
well equipped with straps and strings against contingencies. No 
•' Sheridan's ride " that. Called, as by direction, on Edward Dickin- 
son, Esq., then occupying the ea^t part of Gen. Mack's house. After 
tea with him, a Mr. Luke Sweetser came with lantern and led me up 
through a piece of woods to his house among the trees. Sabbath 
morning and a nervous headache. Asked Rev. Mr. Spofford to sit 
with me and offer the long prayer. And what ditl he pray for? One 
thing, certainly : "That in the question and trial now before us, thy 
young servant and this people may be guided by the wisdom from 
above, and be led to such a conclusion as will be for the glory of 
G-o:l, anil the interests of His kingdom." Good man, this Mr. Spof- 
ford ; 1 forgave him, and forgive him now. lint Oh 1 and alas 1 to be 
strung up like that to begin with. 

Got through that day and evening somehow. The next morning 
the churcii ami parish committees met at the oUict' of Edward Dick- 
inson. Esq. 1 was asked to be present. They had in some way 
rio-htly learned that in coming I had in mind to stay but two Sabbaths 
at most. Against this they strongly protested. My own mind was 
unaltei-ably fixed. Candidating ! Whereunto shall 1 liken it? Be- 



72 

hold and consider a fish caught with a hook, and hung up by the gills. 
To think of it ; a man standing in a pulpit before a people, all eyes 
and ears eagerly intent on learning what manner of man this is, and 
himself, if it be so with him, saj'ing impliedly: "Won't you, be- 
loved, take me for your minister? Do, please." Well, some per- 
sons, strung and tuned humanly, can do some things which others 
can not. A public sentiment just now is worthily asking that our 
executions for murder be by electricity, and so be as short and pain- 
less as possible. The letter to me said, '' sujjply ;" and 1 had come 
with thoughts as far from candidating as 1 could be, and yet be 
here. 

After nearly a two hours' talk, it was decided that I should remain 
and preach on the following Sabbath, and that, in the meantime, I 
shouhl call on the families of the parish — the connnittees taking turns 
in leading me about. Of that week's work, Esq. Dickinson was said 
to have said : " That C'olton is a marvel of a man — to visit two hund- 
red families in one week, and tire out seven committee-men, and pat 
every woman's bab3\" 

The two Sabl)aths I have now sjjoken of were tiie first and second 
in March, 1840. The call came in due time. June 10th following was 
ai)pointed for my ordination. 

I here I'each a point in personal experience memorable indeed to 
me. I had come to Amiierst ; was counseled to come by the Andover 
Seminary Faculty ; came to a large church and parish ; to a peoj^le 
intimately connected with a chief New England college, of which I 
had not been a member; came from long and close seclusion of stud- 
ent life ; to new scenes, cares, toils, burdens. Could I prove eipud 
to the demands? IMany, my best friends, were in doubt of me. 
Wouldn't it have been better to begin with a less exacting (diarge? 

Tuesday, -June i)th. Came from Boston witli my preacher, Rev. 
Wm. M. Rogers ol' that city, ('ouncil Avaiting for us at the house of 
Mr. (iideon Delano in Amity Street. Council organized at 2 p. m. 
with President Humphrey as moderator. Documents presented and 
approved. Then the march to the churcli — moderntor and candidate 
arm in arm, and followed by a large company, representatives of the 
churches. Something of /'or/// if not of comeliness in the times of old. 
Large gathering in the church. Stood neiirly two iiours for examina- 
tion. Whether I stood the examination itself, I do not say. Ccnning 
out of the church after that ordeal, 1 was met at the door by a Mr. 
( hirk (ireen, asking me to come to his house on the evening of the 



73 

next (lay (Ordination day), and marry his dauiilitcr. ^V^■11, wt-U ; 
didn't this mean business and binding? 

Ordination day, Wednesday, .lune 10. Ciiai-minii' day. (ireat num- 
ber of friends from down the Kiver. Church lilled. The H<imi)xldr<' 
Gdne/le of the following Tuesday said : "•All the |)arts were listi-ned 
to with very unusual interest. Tlie sermon was mastei'ly in matter 
and manner. Dr. Humphrey, giving charge to the people, said : 
' When your pastor eomts, receive him wherever you may be. Disturb 
no dust : maJce no apologies : do not spend the first half of tlie visit 
in complaining because he doesn't come oftener, and tlie last half 
because it is so sliort ; but make his visit so pleasant that he can't 
stay away.' " 

Thus the great day and occasion — great t(j me. 

At evening twilight 1 was on mj' way to the wedding in Mill \'alley. 
Met Judge Dickinson in the road opposite the president's house. Saw 
at once from his dress and unshaven face that lie had not attended 
my ordination. Was it come to this at my beginnings here? Deacon 
in the church, college educated ; one of the wealthiest in the town. 
No matter now for the reasons, if I ever knew them, of this holding- 
back. Enough my grateful testimony, tliat Judge Dickinson became 
in no long time, and contimied to the last, to be one of my best friends 
and helpers. 

Leaving the wedding party, I returned to the Amherst House lo my 
room, south front, directly over the otlice. But there Avas no sleep 
for me that night, nor lying down, 'ivo such days, Avith their draughts 
on nature, the exactions and exhaustions. The strain was nigh to 
breaking. Once in the night I said to myself , ^'This is all a dream, 
and I shall wake, and be relieved." But. the curtain turned aside, 
and, the full moon shining brightly, down there in i)lain sight were 
the signs on olHces and stores. "•This certainly is no dream." 'I'hen 
a more than half purpose to leave Amlu'rst before morning. Knew 
and said, " There will Im' a noise over this : ' Strange freak ; man 
called and settled, and ran away the first night.'" But then there 
were five reasons which might satisfy my friends — chiefly this, — that 
I had been unwisely counseled to come here, instead of taking one of 
the lighter charges that had been offei'ed nie. Then there were 
thoughts of dark and desperate expedients. Blessed thing that morn- 
ing follows night. But tJirU morning brought no relief to me. At 10 
o'clock ]\Ir. J. S. Adams called. Saw I was cast down. His gentle- 
ness of voice and ways some of you can remembei'. But there was 
10 



74 

as yet no easement. Providential that the weekl}' church prayer- 
meeting came that (Thursday) afternoon. Large attendance at the 
church. Took mj?^ place behind the connnunion table ; invoked a 
blessing ; read a brief Scripture. Then said, " 1 had always thought 
that, in assuming a pastoral charge, one took upon himself a great 
burden, but I never felt it as I did now." I M-as not able to speak 
further. Dea. Mack quickly rose and said : " O ! our pastor mustn't 
think so ; the burden is mutual: it is on us all as well as on hhn ; and 
we all, pastor and people, will help each other all we can. And, best 
of all, God will help us, and we shall be stayed up." 

Then he prayed for " our pastor," and another prayed, and another. 
The meeting closed. On my way to my. room, at a spot between the 
homes of Prof. Fowler and Mrs. Moore, the terrible load rolled off 
suddenly and wholly ; and if I ever went to my knees and thanked 
God for a great deliverance, I did so then. 1 have seen somethmg of 
care, and toil, and pain. But such a horror of great darkness has so 
far been but once upon me, and I hopi' and pray that the same, or the 
like of it, may not come on me again. 

Perhaps I am wrong in saying all this here and now. If so, it can 
be forgiven me. I have never before spoken it in public excepting 
once and in part — in giving the right hand to a young brother assuming 
a similar charge. 

A year or two before 1 came here, the parish had voted that the 
pastor, Mr. Bent, receiving presents from non-parish members of the 
congregation, should account for the same to the parish. 1 had been 
here but a few weeks, when a handsome traveling valise was sent me. 
I well divined it Avas a tester — to see wJiat the new man would do 
about it. 1 ivturned tiie gift, and with it as pleasant a letter as I 
knew how to write, thanking the donoi' for his kindness, and adding, 
that I could not give to the parish the present he had sent to me, and 
that it would not do for nie to break a [)arish rule. To the (ii'st meeting 
of the parish thereafter, I sent word that the ruk' was embarrassing 
me in my parish visitati(^n. The rule was rescinded, and then the 
men who had signed off returned to tlu'ir ])laet' and part; and so that 
ri])i)U' sank from view. 

Perhaps some of the ancients here can call to rtMiicnibi'ance the ohl 
pulpit in our nu'etiiig-house in 1<S4(). Of pine wood, narrow, dooivd, 
and achingly plain. ^Man up there had to Un)k well to his elbows in 
essaying a gesture. High and closed against all assaults; but so 
were th(^ old Bastile towers in which prisoners were inimurccl. 



75 

lu 1842 or o the pnrif^h obtained from Boston a new pulpit — a costly 
and very comely affair for tiiose times. Then there were other fixings 
and furnishings. Then tlie grounds around the church must be graded 
and put in shape — a labor of days and many hands. You might have 
seen Lawyer Osmyu Baker, coat off, and ax in hand, pleading three 
hours in masterful logic for the ejectment of a stump from its ancient 
tenure and holding on domain of the said church aforesaid. There 
was admirable enterprise. The people had a mind to work. 

I am not able to boast that in coming here, I found a church and 
parish weak, and in leaving left them strong. They Avere strong from 
the first of my knowing them, or knowing of them. Perhaps the 
parish has never since been stronger as to number, character, wealth, 
and standing of chief men. To show this to one whose memory can 
stretch itself to the men and things here fifty years ago, one has only 
to speak some of the names then found here. Deacons, Eleazer 
Gaylord, John Leland, John Dickinson, David IMack and Isaac 
Hawley ; lawyers, Kdward Dickinson, Osmyn Baker, Lucius Boltwood, 
and, a little later, Charles Delano and Samuel T. Spaulding ; doctors, 
Sellon, Gridley, Dorrance and Cutler ; merchants. Mack & Son, 
James Kellogg & Son, Sweetser & Cutler, Pitkin & Kellogg and 
Holland ; Revs. Sanford and Spofford ; Teacher, Nahum Gale of the 
Academy; Editor, J. R. Trumbull; IMr. Green and Joseph Sweetser 
of the Amherst Bank ; Col. Warren Howland, Messrs. Fiske Cutler, 
Andrew WilsoUj Thomas Jones, J. vS. and C. Adams, S. C. Carter, 
Simeon Clark, Newton Fitch, Linus Green, David Parsons, Aaron 
Belden, Horace Smith, Martin Kellogg, Chester Kellogg, Seth Nims, 
Postmaster Strong ; the Smiths, Bakers, Boltwoods, Kelloggs, Dexters 
and Williamses of Mill Valley ; the Cowlses, Hawleys and Nashes of 
Plainville ; and the names Cowls, Angier, Bangs, Ayres, Eastman 
and Dickinson of the North roads ; these and more— for I draw from 
memory, and must stop somewhere. 

Surely a field, this, to call for and call out the best and most that 
any minister could have and give. 

As to those my Deacons, specially the first four: venerable men in 
form and aspect, all verging toward seventy years of age, crowned 
with hoary heads, men of affairs, and wise in counsel. Happily for 
us, we didn't then turn off our deacons ever}' yeai' or two — a practice 
I never believed in. and never shall. 

Don't 3'ou now be too hard on a young minister if, unawares, there 
sometimes stole into his heart a timorous fragrance, just a bit of sly 



76 

elation, at seeing tliose venerable forms, his deaccjns, pass round with 
the bread and wine in the communion hour and service. We are 
human still — some of us arc — having, 1 hope, a little of grace with our 
much of nature. 

It was a point of trial in those da^'S, that this church and parish 
had no parsonage, no chapel or vestry. Our evening meetings were 
held ill the Academy building, then in care of a student, aided and 
aiding himself in prei)aration for the ministry — the late Rev. Dr. 
Isaac Bliss of Constantinople. Happily for pastor and people, and 
in the behoof of all that is fair and right, those aching voids here 
have been filled, to the joy and praise of many. 

And then as to the old meeting-house on the hill, whither the tribes 
went up. Homely in outward looks, doubtless, but handsome within 
— so we felt. The Lord was there in the beauty of his holiness ; and 
his presence will make any place beautiful. As for the rest, I for 
one, was never kept awake o'nights. Rowland Hill once said : " Never 
mind for the hive ; give us the bees." I give joy to my successors, 
my brethren beloved, that they have the hive, and the bees, and the 
handsomeness all through and arounil. 

In those times of old there were here a few spots a little steep and 
rough in a minister's work. One was, his having to preach two 
sermons on Fast Days. Another was, his having to preach two 
sermons on Communion Days, administer the Sacrament at noon, and 
— a last straw — attend a prayer meeting in the evening. And the 
tired toiler betook himself, as best he could, to the soothing persuasion, 
" mollifying ointment," that he was obeying the Apostle's injunctions : 
" make full proof of your ministry," and " endure hardness as a 
good soldier of Jesus Christ." Once the suggestion was made by 
some one to have the connminion service occupy the afternoon. Hut 
there was opposition to this, and the matter was dropped. It was 
the '■'■custom" here, and in some places hereabouts, and custom, you 
know, is law, and law is law, and what is not law is something else. 
" Innocuous desuetude" hadn't arrived in these parts. A somewhat 
of the strict and rigid, you will say, in these things of tlu' oldi'u time. 
Perhaps so ; but possibly thr ptMidulum is now swinging to the other 
and not better extreme. 

It is not my pai't to-day to give the history of this church. Another 
has done this. But 1 niay, I think, and shouhl, refer in a word to 
the revivah here in 1841 , '4o and 'oO. This last was a work of marked 
dcplh and jiower. 'J'he incidents and iufiueiices leading to it are 



77 

quite instructive. Early in .Innuary of this year (ISoO) the prayer 
meetings were notably fulliT and more solemn. A cloud of mercy 
seemed to hang over us, and loady to drop down fatness. Days and 
weeks passed, but no conversions. \A'hat was the hindrance? Once 
and again the church standing conunittee — the Deacons — met in tlie 
pastor's study to talk and pray over this question. Oppressing fear 
was felt, lest our dawn should shut down in darkness. The trouble, 
we came at length to believe, was in the rum i)laces in the village, 
with fires of hell in full blast. What could be done? ^My counselors 
did wisely in advising prudence, for we were told the rum men were 
desperate. Kind words had been used, but availed nothing. You 
can imagine a pastor's anxieties in such an emergency. March 
meeting was close by. I drew up two articles, and obtained five 
signatures, asking for their insertion in the warrant : First, to see if 
it be the wish of the town of Amherst that places be kept open here 
for the sale of intoxicating drinks in violation of law ; and second, 
to see if the town will authorize and instruct their selectmen to dose 
such places, if such there be in the town. (I quote from memory and 
for substance.) I went to Lieutenant Dickinson of the South parish, 
and Judge Coukey of the East, and Daniel Dickinson of the North, and 
President Hitchcock of the College. They all promised to give a 
helping word — Dr. Hitchcock to speak last. The meeting came. 
Sweetser's hall was crowded to the stairs. There was much excite- 
ment. A man from South Amherst moved that the articles be 
dismissed. This was voted down. Then the main question, and now 
the speaking, as pre-arranged — Dr. Hitchcock closing, — and a more 
affecting and effective appeal than his T have never heard. He said 
in substance: "The people of Amherst are aware that I have not 
been in the habit <^)f meddling in the affairs of the town. I feel that 
the interests of myself and my family are safe in the care of the town, 
and I am confident that the good people here who have done so noblv 
for the College will not allow the Institution to suffei injuries from 
evil causes among us ; " and then, with an emphasis that fairly choked 
his utterance, he added : " But it were better that the college shotfhl go 
down, than that young men should come here to be ruined by drink places 
among us." Then the voting— 400 hands shot up for abating the 
nuisances — so it was said. Contrary minds — just one hand, and one 
only and alone. The next morning at ten o'clock the selectmen went 
to these rum resorts and shut them up. 



78 

Then the heavens gave rain — blessed showers, and there was a great 
refreshing. That revival work continued till late in summer. iVIore 
than 1 .50 professed hope in Christ ; GS persons joined this church on 
profession, on one da}' — Aug. 1 1 . Others came later ; some joined 
elsewhere. 

I cannot let this opportunity pass, without expressing my vt'ry great 
obligations to the Faculty of Amherst College, for their unvarying 
courtesy and kindness to me from first to last of my labors here. 
Fathers and brotiiers could not have been more friendly and helpful. 
One member of thtit Faculty, Professor William S. Tyler, revered :uid 
beloved, is still spared to us ; imd my l)est impulses prompt me to say, 
that a kinder heart than his I have never found. 

It has providentially been my favored lot to minister to two peoples, 
and only two, in tlie gospel of Christ. They were and are good peo- 
ples. I never desired any better peoples. I never sought nor desired 
any other peoples. These have I loved, and I love them still. If 
any one be curious to ask, which of my two peoples I love most and 
best, my instant answer is — bolh. 



PAPBP^ 



By rev. EDWARD S. DWIGIIT. D. D. 

(Became Acting Pastor Aug. 21 . 1853. Installed .Juli/ 19, 1854. Dismissed 

Aug. 28, 1860 ) 



I was invited to take the pastoral charge of this church, to occu[)y, 
if not to till, the vacancy left by my loved and now venerable brother, 
the Rev. Aaron M. Colton, in the early sununer of IS,").'! ; and iiaviug 
conditionall}^ accepted the invitati(jn, entered on my ollicial duty on 
the 21st of Aug. Domestic considerations seemed to me to render my 
immecliate installation unadvisable, and it was postponed for a time. 

Tlje Andierst of that da}' wore a vei-y different aspect from that 
which it now presents. The natural land-marks were indeed all in 



view. The countiy around was as beautiful then as now. But the 
town itself, the buildings, public and private, the streets, the open 
grounds, were only such as were at that time to be ever^'where seen 
in our country towns. There were numerous neat and substantial 
liouus, of tlie ])lain style of a former generation ; but not one tasteful 
edifice — such ;is we see now on every side — from the factory-like 
range of barracks on College Hill to Mt. Pleasant on the North. A 
short strip of pavement lay on the two sides of the square corner near 
the hotel, where the business of the population centered ; and else- 
where were simple gravel walks, more or less carefully kept. The 
common was a rudely fenced field, wholl}' uninviting to the eye ; while 
the striH'ts were too apt to be littered with loose papers and other 
rubbish. (1 heard an eminent gentleman, who lived among vou a 
few years ago, and who had traveled far and wide, — the late Admiral 
(Ireen, — pronounce Amherst the most attractive town in every respect 
that he had ever known. He would hardly have said so then.) 

I, of course, inherited my brother (olton's church and society. The 
church had its full quota of four deacons, Messrs. J.uke Sweetser, 
Simeon Clark, Moses li. Green and Josiah Ayres. The two last 
named had been recently chosen, and it was one of my early duties 
to set them formally apart to their office with public prayer. It was 
my hap[)iness to be associated with them officially through my whole 
pastorate, and to find in them always judicious counsellors and cordial 
friends. With Mr. Sweetsei', the upright merchant, the sagacious 
citizen, the earnest christian, my relations were during that period 
and to the end of his life, of an especiall}^ warm and cordial nature ; 
:uid in his house I found :i home, whenever duty brought mcv here in 
later years. The junior tleacon, Mr. Ayres, the popular janitor of 
the college, died at the vi-ry close of my ministry, and almost my last 
public duty here was to conduct the service at his funeral. 

The church membership fell somewhat short of 'MK). Among its 
more pi-ominent members were, (xeu. Mack, the living presentment — 
as it seemed to me — of a Puritan of the olden time, with integrity and 
godly-fear stamped on every feature, who to my regret survived only 
a year or two after I came to know him; l)ea,. Leland, already wvW 
advanced in years, and ai)proaching the end of his useful life ; Mr. 
Edward Dickinson, the strong, high-minded, public-spirited citizen, 
whom all houoi'ed and trusted; Mr. J^ucius Boltwood, conservative, 
clear in his convictions and true to them, candidate of the Free-soil 
party for years for the (ilovernor's chair, which he would have filled 



80 

more worthily than some who have reached it ; Mr. John S. Adams, 
the intelligent, kindl}^ book-seller, whose store was the head-quarters 
of the literary society of the town ; and David Parsons, (as everybody 
called himi^i , son of the second pastor of the church, quiet, shrewd, 
ingenious, whose bright wit made his carpenter's shop a place of 
hardly less attraction in another wa}^ ; — not to add to these names 
those of the "honorable women," whose good sense and christian 
worth adorned their respective homes. 

The old customs had not all passed aw^ay. It was one of the odd 
experiences of my first years in Amherst, to see our venerable brother, 
Mr. Carter, (whom you laid aw^ay to his rest only a few weeks ago), 
rise in his pew under the south gallery, in his almost life-long capacity 
as town clerk, just after the afternoon congregation had assembled, 
and before the worship began, and read in not too loud a voice "•the 
intentions of marriage" of parties contemplating forming that rela- 
tion, while all ears were intent to catch their names. It was not very 
long, however, before this custom was superseded by the more agree- 
able usage that now prevails. 

Among the earlier changes that speedily followed (1 will not say, 
that were owing to) my coming, was that which was made in the 
music of our public worship. I found a choir of ten or fifteen singers 
in the gallery under the leadership of Dr. Woodford, with an orches- 
tra consisting of a bass-viol, a violin and a flute ; the latter played, I 
think, by Mr. George Cutler; I do not remember who played the for- 
mer. I am not competent to criticize the merits of their music. Hut 
the congregation were growing ambitious of something more modern ; 
and a move was soon made, and successfully carried out, to 
procure an excellent organ,— as it was then regarded, — at what was 
for those days a very heavy expense. Its introduction gave univer- 
sal and very great satisfaction. 

The cause that occasioned the delay of my final settlement not 
continuing, 1 was installed as pastor on ,Iuly 11), 1854, by a council 
of which Dr. Woodbridge, of lladley, was the moderator. From the 
experiences of other candidates before other councils at the Doctor's 
hands, I had fully expected to have my theological beliefs thoroughly 
overhauled, and perhaps shari)ly antagonized, by him, in his character 
as the famous local chiinii^ion of rigid orthodoxy. But to my aston- 
ishment he skillfully evaded all disputed points, and I passed the 
examination without a single "condition." 1 had asked my honored 
relative and olil college tutor. President AVoolsey, of Yale, to preach 



81 

the seniion, and he had ])roniised to do so, but found liimself — as the 
time drew near — unable to be absent from his college duties. There- 
upon, 1 had recourse to Dr. Leonard llacon, of New Haven, (so well 
Ivuown through New P^ngland ) , Avho kiudl}' consented to render the 
service. Dr. Cleveland, then of the First church in Northampton, 
was on the council, but had no part in its public exercises assigned 
him. He therefore asked to be excused from further attendance, 
giving as his reason that " it was unnecessary, as he knew that the 
bacon that would be furnished was always loell cooked." A smile of 
amusement at the rather rude jest lighted up the grave faces around, 
all save Dr. Bacon's own, who sat with countenance as grim and 
utterly unconscious, as though no such person as Dr. Cleveland were 
on the planet. 

1 was settled on a salary? of $900, a sum that meant more then than 
it does now, — determined on, as 1 was told, as being what the college 
Professors Avere then receiving. Those gentlemen — good and worthy 
men that they were — had some of them been brought into very close 
quarters indeed, not many years before ; and counted themselves happy 
when their compensation reached the amount I have named. Unfor- 
tunately for me, the ideas of the congregation as to what a minister 
was worth, did not advance as fast as the estimate the trustees of 
the college put on the services of its instructors ; and these gentlemen 
consequently grew rich more rapidly than I did ! 

It was not very long after this, that the society took another impor- 
tant step forward, in building its very neat and comfortable vestry 
we$t of the church for its business and social meetings. Previously, 
the Sunday evening worship and the weekly prayer-meetings were held 
(as my brother Colton no doubt well remembers) in the basement of 
the church itself, a most uninviting room, low-ceiled and dark and 
half-subterranean ; so that our removal into the light, airy, well ven- 
tilated and comfortably seated new edifice, was an occasion (to those, 
at least, who attended the meetings) of heaity mutual congratulation. 
It was as great an improvement on anything we had known before, as 
the present beautiful room in which you are now privileged to hold 
such services is upon the one we valued so llighl3^ 

The year ]S;")7 will be well remembered by our elder citizens, as one 
of national distress from the depression of business. That period of 
great outward disaster was followed in '58, not altogether strangel y, 
by a correspondingly wide-spread awaking of earnest religious feeling, 
pervading the churches witli great i)ower. In this Iiealthy spiritual 
11 



82 

movement we were, in the mercy of God, permitted to share freely ; 
and the happy result \yas a numerous ingathering of converts, young 
and old, into our fellowship, adding iu every respect to the church's 
strength. A consequence, not at the time anticipated, followed not 
long after. Among the new candidates for church-membership were 
many, to whom the phraseolog}^ of our confession of faith — theolog- 
ical, antiquated, clumsily expressed — was hardly intelligible ; and 
there arose (I scarcely recall now how or with whom it originated ^ an 
inquiry whether it were not a suitable time to recast both creed and 
confession, and, without changing their doctrinal significance, to bring 
them into a more easily understood and more useful form. The ques- 
tion was then with us a novel one. The proposal naturally met with 
strong opposition from sonu; of our more conservative members, 
attached to the creed (as it stood 'written on the fly-leaf at the end oj 
the jiulpit hymn hook j because it was old, and they deemed any meddling 
with its time-lionored terms, a crime little less heinous than sacrilege. 
The discussion that ensued at times grew warm, and seemed even to 
threaten serious division in the church. But the reasonableness of the 
proposed changes, — which were not violent or fundamental, — by 
degrees commended itself to the great majority of the members, and 
the minority had the good sense and good feeling to waive their objec- 
tions. The proposed alterations Avere made, and peace was preserved. 
In a later pastorate still more extensive changes of tlie same general 
nature were made, on which, it seems to me, you are to be congratu- 
lated. 

1 have found among my papers the records of the charities of the 
church, for four years of my ministry, from 'o4 to '57 inclusive ; and 
it surprises me to read for those years respectivel}' the footings of 
$1,072, $9<s8, $1,001 and $810 ; which impress me now as showing — 
for those times — a very creditable spirit of christian liberality. 

The relations of my ministi'y with the gentlemen of the college fac- 
ulty, beginning with the eminent but very modest President Hitchcock, 
and afterwards much more intimately with President Stearns and the 
different professors, were always of the most friendly and pleasant 
kind. Never did they refuse me any aid which — ns was not seldom 
the case — I had occasion to request. 

Family considerations again seemed to render it my duty, in 18G0, 
to seek a more genial climate for my houseliold, and I offered my 
resignntion of the pastorate in that year, to take effect on the 10th of 
August, seven years from tlie time of my entering on its duties. The 



83 

church and society' granted my request for release, with kind express- 
ions of regret and good-Avill. 

May I add (in closing these imperfect recollections of a pleasant 
ministry long past b3% the survivors of which have already come to 
be comparatively few in number), as an expression of my personal 
interest in the prosperity of this now historical church, a single stanza 
from a hymn we used to sing in the old da3'S of " Watts and Select," 
] )ut which is now seldom if ever heard ? — 
" May peace attend thy gate, 
And joy within thee Avait, 

To bless the soul of every guest ! 
The man that seeks thy peace, 
And wishes thhie increase, 

A thousand blessings on him rest!" 

Note. On page 80, nineteenth line from the bottom read Dr. Wooilman. 



IjB^IFBI^ 



By REV. HENRY L. HUBBELL, D. D. 

Ordained April 24, 1861, Dismissed April 4, I860. 



Unable to be present, to my great disappointment, at the interesting 
exercises of ^^our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I am requested 
to speak by letter. Though pressed with other duties, my love to the 
church is such 1 cannot refuse. 

It is a rare privilege, granted to but a few, to start a stream of 
organized influence and activity perpetuating itself in a community 
for one huudred and fift}' years. This honor belongs to the founders 
of this church which has become the mother of other churches, and a 
College, shedding its light even into foreign lands. 

Xext to starting, is the honor of continuing, directing and enlarging 
such organized influence and activity in the service of Christ and his 
civilization. It is this, my friends, which gives us all an opportunity 
to honor the founders and join in the celebration of to-day. Each of 



84 

us entered into the life and work of this clnn-eh in a way peculiar to 
himself and each has done his own individual work, because (Tod 
never duplicates his servants or their services. 

My own entrance and continuance in the life and activity of the 
church, has for me some points of very special interest. Here I began 
my ministry. I came fresh from Andover Theological Seminary, 
counseled to come by Prof. Phelps, also by Prof. Park, who had lived 
among you while he was Professor in the College and commended 
the church very highly. 

By this church 1 was ordained to the Christian ministry and installed 
your pastor, April 24, 18G1. Prof. Phelps preached the sermon. 
The examination before the Council, except one point, I remember 
dimly, but most impressively the ordination with "the laying on of 
hands," enjoining on me a ministry to the Master and a service to 
you that, in the measure in which I sought to fulfill it, seemed to rise 
above my reach more and more. Here I began new experiences, new 
relations, new cares, new prayers, new affections for those I sought 
to serve, prayers and affections that abide to this day. 

In this church, too, 1 foimd o»e, who, as I esteemed it, more than 
doubled my services to you and more than doubled my life in all that 
made life worth living. 

Besides these new things which never become old, we began our 
common service to the Master, at a new epoch of our country's 
history and under very distracting conditions for purely spiritual work. 

Ten days before I came. President Lincoln issued his Proclamation 
for 75,000 men. Had not Seminary advice checked me, I should 
have asked of you release, and joined the army. But I came. I found 
the air filled with the sounds of war and the rumors of war. The 
recruiting office was in the street. In a short time, sons of the 
Faculty, members of my congregation and one of the Professors had 
enlisted. The whole community was stirred with the preparations 
and the excitements of the approaching conflict. After Bull Run we 
knew not how long it would last. We dreaded what we feared. At 
first, not all the church was in sympathy with the nprising of the 
people. The majority were, and ere long Ave were substantially one in 
the great struggle for national life and liberty. We sent out our 
quota. We saw them, with others, march proudly away under the 
dear old flag, keeping time to the inspiring imisic of war. In imagi- 
nation we went with them, through the streets of the great cities, 
through the towns and open country, into camps at the front. By 



85 

Sanitary and Christian Commission services, by speeclies and votes, 
by sympathies and pra3'ers, we stood l)y them when on guard in the 
cold storm and beneath clear, suuu}' skies, on the long, weary march 
and the bloody field of battle, in hospitals of pain and pi-isons of 
"hatred and famine" and when, between the contending lines, life 
was slowly ebbing away, — but who can count up their sufferings ! lu 
yonder cemetery lies the precious dust of some ; the dust of others, 
equally precious, sleeps in unknown graves in the laud they made free. 

In the summer heat of 1864 I had the privilege of being your repre- 
sentative to our brave men at the front. In the preaching-places, by 
the bedside of the sick, the wounded and the dying, I told these men 
who sent me, and endeavored to cheer and comfort them by pointing 
them to Jesus Christ. In due time the struggle was over. Law and 
liberty triumphed. 

Though the period for this struggle was not the best for promoting 
revivals or proposing church improvements or new lines of church 
work, yet, during it, God blessed us with an increase of Spiritual life 
with frequent accessions and one or two special refreshings among 
the young, whose lives and services are to-day blessing this and other 
churches. I cannot but refer to some, conspicuous in their influence, 
while I was pastor, who have preceded us into the Silent Land. 
There were Deacon Sweetser and Edward Dickinson, Esq., each in 
their way leaders, good men and true. Lucius Boltwood, Deacon 
Green, Mr. Carter, Mr .Sidney Adams, and other pro.minent men come 
before my mind as worthy of special mention for what they were 
and did. 

There were also women in this church and congregation whose 
faithful services have earned them a good degree and an honorable 
mention in the records of this church ; such as Mrs. IMack, Mrs. 
William Cutler, Miss Esther Cutler and many others. 

In many ways the life of the College touches and advantages the 
life of the church. Perhaps, to no one in the church is the College of 
more profit and pleasure than to the pastor. He feels the impulse of 
its intellectual and spiritual activity. I am sure I felt it and to your 
advantage. The College Professors never failed to help when asked. 
There were two to whom I felt specially indebti'd and of whom I asked 
help, perhaps oftener than others, because of our personal relations. 
One was Prof. Crowell, now standing in the front rank of scholars and 
teachers, the other was Prof. Seelye, now the distinguished President 
of the College, than whom no man can be a truer friend. I can bear 



personal testimony that both Pres. Stearns and Pres. Seelye felt a 
genuine interest in the prosperity of our church. One day, Prof. S. 
said to me that he looked on our church as the mother of the College, 
and he felt as he spoke. Fortunate has our church' been in the friends 
and influences immediately about it. 

Good as is your past, your future may be better. God's work is 
growing larger, year by year, and His grace is sufficient for every 
demand. Ma}'^ it be the privilege of yourselves and those who come 
after you to do that enlarging work and to be filled with that ever 
enlarging grace, till He comes. I can ask for the church no greater 
success nor for its workers any greater reward. 
Lake Chaiies, La., Nov. 27, 1889. 



ADDr^ESS 

By rev. JONATHAN L. JENKINS, D.D. 

Became Acting Pastor Feb. 17, 1S61, Installed Sept. 24. 1S6S, 
Distnissed Feb. 5. 1877. 



(An incomplete report, but substance of the tlioiiglit.) 

One good thing about the memory is that it does not remember. It 
seems to be controlled by natural selection. It retains what it likes. 
It ejects as well as keeps. This prerogative it uses in the care of 
what is disagreeable. This the memory shuts out. It is astonishing 
how soon we forget a pain, when the pain has stopped. It is because 
the unpleasant, the painful (lr()i)S out of remembrance that the past 
wins a glory from being far. 

It must be that during my life of ten ^^ears here disagreeable things 
hapj)eued. It is even possible that T myself did not please every- 
body. And it is quite certain everybody' didn't alwaj's do what 
pleased me. What may have been does not now concern us. Our 



concern is with what is remembered. And the memoi'v of my life 
here is the memory of a long, pleasant day with bright skies overhead 
and its hours filled up with delightful companionships. 

Occasions like the present do more than give opportunity for 
indulgence in personal reminiscences. They shoiild bring to mind the 
excellent work done hi the past by the old historic churches of New 
England. I am a high church man, a high New England church man. 
The liistoric New England church is not an institution to be ashamed 
of. Its works win it praise. It was by its churches that New 
England was made what it is. It is to be kept true to itself by its 
churches, and b}" the churches which are successors of the churches 
originally planted in New England. The ideas embodied in and 
pi'omulgated by those churches are neither obsolete nor useless now. 
They seem the very ideas needed in society. The old doctrine that 
men can govern themselves without interference from without, is a 
doctrine that can be insisted upon with profit now. So is the old 
doctrine that religion is not ceremony or spectacle, but a personal 
experience, one that the world has not 3'et outgrown. Nor again is 
it wholly unnecessary to insist that religion is of the understanding- 
even more than of the sensibilities. There is work for the old historic 
churches of New England. That mission is not yet accomplished. 
Occasions like this are valuable that they make distinct the work to 
be done, and unite faith iu agencies suited to accomplish the work. 
Be persuaded then, friends, to identify yourselves more and more 
closely with the veritable church, let it in each generation reveal its 
strength, and in each generation more perfectly do the work given 
it to do. 



Bv REV. F. F. EMERSON 

Installed 1S79, Dismissed 1883. 



To THE First Chltrch and Society, Amherst, Mass. : — Dear 
C!himstian Friends : 

It is with the most sincere regret, and a feeling of disappointment 
which I am unable to express, that on account of unexpected duties 
which I do not feel at liberty to put aside, I find myself unable to be 
present with you to participate in the festivities of your one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary. As I cannot see you face to face and 
speak what is in my heart to say, I must fall back upon the poor 
alternative of sending you a few words of regret and giving a few, 
out of many reasons, why Amherst will be to me one of the most 
interesting places in the world, and why I still love the dear old church 
which for four years 1 was permitted to serve. It is nearly seven 
years since I was dismissed from the Amherst pastorate, but these 
years have fled so quickly and my mind has been so absorbed in my 
labor here, that it seems but a little while since I left you, and should 
I rise in the familiar pulpit on Tiuirsday evening, it would be the most 
natural thing in the world to give out a text and go ahead with the 
sermon. 

But 1 know that a different task would await me,— a task which 1 
would gladly have fulfilled to the best of my ability, had I been 
permitted to be with you. 

Amherst will always be of interest to me because it was there that 
I awoke to my Congregational consciousness ; for I suppose I Avas 
always a Congregationalist, only I did not discover it till I was about 
forty years of age. The earliest colonial Emerson was a Puritan 
minister of " The Standing Order" settled in Mendon in 1632. Since 
his day there have been many Fmersons in the Congregational pulpit. 
I suppose it was in the blood. For some unaccountable reason my 
father became a Baptist. It Avas, however, only a temporary aberra- 
tion of the Emersonian mind ; for though 1 was born in a Baptist 



89 

family and rocked in a Baptist cradle, educated in Baptist schools and 
graduated from a Baptist college and seminary, and a preacher for 
some twelve years in Baptist pulpits, yet, as chickens hatched under 
the motherl}' protection of a duck will not take to the water, so the 
natural aversion of my earlier ancestors to that liquid element finally 
asserted itself ; — I pecked mji' way out of the hard shell of Baptist 
logic and stood at last a full-feathered Congregational chick. And it 
was in Amherst that Avith wide-open eyes I looked forth upon mj' new 
world of Congregational liberty. It was a triumph of heredity over 
environment. 

It was in Amherst, too, that I came under the altogether quickening 
and healthful influence of a New England College town. I was 
admitted to many pleasant relationships with men of learning, whose 
acquaintance and friendship was helpful and inspiring from first to 
last. Amherst is not of sufficient size not to feel the influence of the 
college in all its thought and activities of whatever kind. The colonial 
tradition has come down to us that a good minister of Boston in the 
early days went down to Marblehead to preach to the fishermen, and 
he told' them that the main business of life was religion. An old salt 
in commenting on the sermon the next day, remarked in a grumbling 
tone, that the main business of life might be religion up in Boston — 
probably was — but in Marblehead it was fishvicj. The main business 
of Amherst is Amherst college ; and I rejoice that my first work in 
the Congregational pastorate was in a town that is full of academic 
traditions and that feels the helpful influence upon its schools and 
churches of what may be called a collegiate atmosphere. As I think 
of the ministers with whom I daily associated aud Avho were among 
my most lenient and appreciative hearers and cordial supporters and 
helpers, and of the professors, with many of whom I formed relations 
which were most friendly and helpful, I look back upon my stay in 
Amherst as a veritable sojourn in a school of the prophets ; a school 
in which he must be dull indeed wlio could not find inspiration and 
help to keep his working power up to concert pitch. 

Then, too, I recall the fact that I found in Amherst a well organized 
church and parish ; a people interested in their church life and work ; 
a church and society thoroughly alive, with a conunendable pride in 
tlieir place of worship, and having the dilTerent departments well 
manned and equipped for the work which a church and parish ought 
to do in a community. It was in this respect that I felt that I owed 
much to the pastors who had gone before me, and sometimes thought 
12 



96 

within myself tiiat they had done so much and so well for the church, 
that there was little for me to do in the way of organization, or the 
adoption of methods." I think the Blrst church in Amherst could as 
well dispense with a pastor altogether as any church with whicli I am 
acquainted. It runs of itself. 

And last, but not least, as a matter of interest to me, 1 remember 
Amherst as the place where I was treated a great deal better than 1 
deserved. I shall never cease to remember with gratitude the kind- 
ness of the Amherst church to nw and mine in many ways, how 
lenient they were towards my faults and failings, and how appreciative 
above that which they deserved, they were, of my pulpit ministra- 
tions. 

I know you will call to mind on Thursday, as I do now, tiie forms 
and faces of those who were with us when I was your minister, but 
who are now gone to their reward : Dea. Sweetser, whose kindly and 
affable ways 1 shall never forget ; Uea. Nash, with his sterling good 
sense and unaffected piety : and others whose memory is fragrant in 
the history of the church. There were two men, iiowever, whose 
memory will ever be especially dear to me, — fathers in Israel whom I 
both respected and loved — Dr. Magill and Dr. Ilickok. They have 
passed away since I left the pastorate of the church. Dr. Magill 
came to Newport at my installation and spoke so kindly and generously 
to the people concerning my character and gifts that the aim to fill out 
the outlines of the promises which he made for me, has been a serious 
and unfulfilled task to this day. His kindly and appreciative treat- 
ment of me during my pastorate will be among the pleasant memories 
of my life. And no man could be a warmer, truer friend than Dr. 
Hickok. It pained me, oftentimes, to think that tlie great thinker, 
philosopher, and preacher, was compelled to listen to my ineffectual 
theologizing, but he never let me know, by word or sign, that it 
troubled him. He was a constant encouragement and ins])irati()n by 
his unwavering kindness, and ever renewed manifestation of interest 
and regard. 

Permit me in closing to congratulate you on what I Itelicve will be 
a most delightful occasion. Allow me to look back with yon into the 
past, recalling what (xod has done for you from the earliest days of 
your history, onward to the present time, how many men and women 
have been trained for the better life in these long years, and what you 
have been permitted to do for the community where (xod has placed 
you. Permit me, also, to look with 3'ou into the future, with the full 



expectancy iiucl hope that now, firmly established on so good a foun- 
dation, there j^et remain greater and better things for you. 

I shall never cease to be interested in all your doings, and to wish 
for you the highest welfare and success. As there is a period of your 
liistory which is especially sacred and dear to me, and which can nevej' 
fade out of my memory, and for that reason mainly, all that pertains 
to you will ever be of the deepest interest to me. 

You have had sunshine and shadow, joy and sorrow, intertwined all 
along 3^our pathway, as all (iod's people do, but God has been using 
l)oth, and overruling both, for your spiritual growth as to yourselves. 
and for your moral power as to your influence in the community where 
He has planted you. And so He will continue to do for you and for 
His people everywhere. 

Ma}' God bless you : may the Holy Spirit guide you and make you 
[)erfect to do the Divine Avill ; and may Christ, the Head of the church, 
who holds in His right hand the seven stars which are ministers of 
his churches, and who walks in the midst of the seven golden candle- 
sticks which are the churches themselves, bless and keep and perfectly 
redeem you ; — that ' *■ you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all 
pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the 
knowledge of God." 

Yours in the gospel of Christ, 

FORKEST F. E^IEKSON. 



ADDI^ESS 

By rev. E. p. BLODGETT. 

(Ireeiiwich, Mass. 

Then' is no local church which has so large a place in my heart, as 
this First church in Amherst, unless it be the church of which I have 
been the pastor more than forty-six years and whose one hundred and 
liftieth anniversar3% 1749 — 1899, will occur ten 3'ears from this date. 
I united with this church fiftj'-eight years ago, and continuously 
without interi'uption, have been a member of it, until six years ago, 
when I removed my relation to the church of which I had been so long 
pastor, the reason of which abiding here and of my subsequent 



92 

I'eraoval, I ueed not here detail. For six years, therefore, 1 have been 
without a pastor. Previously, ten of the pastors of this church, had 
stood in the ecclesiastical relation of pastor to me. 1 am one of the 
very few surviving who unite the present with the past, reaching back 
neaiiy seventy years. 1 have no records except what are written 
upon the tablet of memory. The old meeting- house on the hill, the 
religious home of the church for so many years, from the top of the 
old steeple to its foundation stones 1 remember well. In all its 
comeliness, or rather uncomeliness, I have a distinct recollection of it. 
1 remember its square pews with the seats turned up on hinges during 
the long prayer. In one of them sat Noah Webster and his family 
during his residence in Amherst, while engaged in the great work of 
his life. The old high pulpit perched far above the heads of the 
hearers, with the deacons' seat in front below, and the sounding board 
especially, suspended from the ceiling over the head of the minister, 
are in vivid remembrance, and it was one of the trials of my early 
boyhood, lest that sounding board might fall and crush the messenger 
of God in the very act of delivering his message. I remember the 
choir opposite the pulpit in the side gallery, Avith Moses Dickinson as 
its leader, with no musical instrument attached to it except the old 
fashioned pitch pipe Avhose toot I can now almost hear. I remember 
the large square pews or pens in the galleries, which were such a 
convenient refuge for the naughty boys who afforded abundant 
material for the tithing man, one of whom I especially recall in the 
person of Col. Rowland, and I remember too, when about six years 
old, going from the old meeting-house to the ceremony of laying the 
corner stone of the first building of Amherst college, in which the 
First church in Amherst took such a vital interest in its early struggle 
for existence, and once more I remember vividly the forenoon of the 
very day when the old steeple fell a crash to the earth, and the building 
was taken down to give place to a future home of the church in what 
is now College hall, and in after years to the astronomical observatory 
in the old locality. 

My remembrance of Dr. Parsons is somewhat dim, and yet with 
great vividness I recollect the day it was announced in Amherst, that 
he was dead in Wethersfield, whither he had gone to visit relatives. 
But Daniel A. Clark rises up before me in all the inipressiveness of 
his remarkable personality. He was an eminent preacher of great 
gifts as a sermonizer, graphic in style, with pith and point as all who 
have his sermons in print will bear witness. Koyal Washburn, his 



93 

successor, was a name to be revered and loved ; ro^'al not in name 
merel}', but in nature ; royal in his manhood, royal in his ministry 
and in all his influence as a servant of God. A saintly, C'hristly man, 
with a character as simple and unostentatious as the plain, marble 
slab erected to his memory, and as beautiful as the epitaph upon it, — 
" Saved by grace." I was one of the last group admitted to the 
church under his ministry and, 1 think, the last person baptized by 
him before he entered upon that eventful journey to Georgia, for his 
health and returning in the spring not much improved he lingered 
some months in the chamber of the, then, parsonage, but since 
occupied for many years b}? Mrs. Davis. One incident, during those 
months of decline, shows the man. Amherst college had received 
from the state its charter in full, after a long struggle and opposition. 
As a demonstration of joy it Was illuminated from the top of the tower 
downward at every available window in south, middle and north 
colleges. A grand sight. Mr. Washburn was asked to be taken 
from his bed that he might witness it. He was carried to the window 
where he might have a full view. " Beautiful" he exclaims. " But 1 
have a grander sight still, ' I see the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ'." And we do not wonder that at his funeral Prof. Fiske 
should take as his text, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the 
death of his saints." 

But I must not linger. 1 have known all the ministers of this church 
from Dr. Parsons, or Daniel A. Clark at least, to the present pastor. 
Some of them have gone up higher. Some of them still in active 
work for the Master. One in his green old age still bringing forth 
fruit, Avhose voice ^^ou had hoped to hear to-day. And then those 
deacons, too, Dea. Leland, the music of whose voice still lingers in 
mine ear. Dea. Gaylord of whom it was said, if a difficult case of 
discipline occurred iu the church, such was his wisdom and christian 
sagacity combined with tenderness, it was committed especially to his 
care. Dea. David Mack and Dea. Zachariah Hawley, whose large 
and well-proportioned bodies were equaled or exceeded bj^ their sound 
judgment, solid practical sense and consecrated piety. A long list I 
might go over, I might call the roll, good men and godly women not 
a few, whose very presence in the streets of Amherst, was a vindication 
of everything good and pure and Christly and a rebuke of everything 
mean and false and Avicked. They believed because God had spoken. 
They had positive convictions and the courage of their convictions. 
The}' believed in, and held to the covenant, and that the covenant- 



94 

keeping God held them. They have passed away, one after another, 
to the great congregation of the just ; one of them within a few 
months, in the person of Samuel C. Carter. And may all the present 
membership be so loyal to their discipleship, that the church shall 
more and more continue to have an uplifting power in this community 
and in its missionary zeal be a benediction unto the ends of the earth. 



IjEHITEP^S. 



Given below are a few of many letters from persons wiio received 
the invitation of the Church to the celebration. 

First (Jhurrh Parsonage, 

ILirlforcU Conn., Oct. ]!K 1889. 
My Dear Mr. Dickerman : — 

I have your kind letter of invitation to the one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the organization of the First church of Christ in 
Amherst. I should most gladly be present on the occasion, not only 
because of the general interest T feel in historical anniversaries of this 
kind, but in especial because of the peculiar relationship which you 
have yourself suggested between the Amherst church and the First 
church of Hartford, through the medium of thelladley church formed 
by the seceding members of the church of which I have the honor 
to be pastor. T have had occasion elsewhere quite carefully to 
examine the controversy which led to thi' secession spoken (jf, and to 
express the opinion that " spite of many irregularities and, doubth ss, 
a good deal of ill temper on both sides, the general weight of right 
and justice was with the defeated and emigrating minority.'" 

Loyal, therefore, as I am, and have reason to be, to thr old cluii-cli 
from whom this minority went away, and highly as 1 esteem tiie 
chai-acter of the fathers who remained and the sous who have suc- 
ceeded to them, I can but liave a prepossession of interest in the band 
which planted themselves in Iladley and their successors who laid the 
foundations in Amherst. 



95 

Recognizing in some sense the grandmotherl}' velationin an eccle- 
siusticnl way of the church of which I am pastor, to that to whicli 
you binir the like rehition, let me extend in the name of the P^irst 
eiiurch of Hartford, our kind congratulations on you)" i)i'osperit3', and 
DUi' hopes for the happ}' and useful celebration of your anniversary. 
These congratulations 1 would cheerfully and gladly bear in person, 
did not a previous engagement absolutely forbid. I trust that the 
presence with you of an honored member of our church, John C 
Parsons, Esq., a representative of two of your early and revered 
pastors, will more than supply any deficiency on my part. 

Yours very truly, 

Geo. Leon Walker. 



Cleveland, Ohio. Nov. 4. 1889. 
Mk. William W. Hunt, 

My Dear Sir : — 

When 1 wrote you some daj's ago, I fully intended to accept the 
invitation of the committee, to be present at the celebration of the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversar}'^ of the First church of Christ, of 
Amherst, on the 7th inst. But my engagements are such, it will be 
impossible for me to leave Cleveland, in time to be with 3'ou, and T 
reluctantly send my regrets. 

To me the anniversary has a peculiar interest. For nearly a period 
covering three generations, my grandfather and great-grandfather 
were pastors of this church. They wei'e pious, infiuential, devoted 
inen, and did their work well and bravely in the world. In early life 
I knew a distinguished lawyer of Connecticut, who knew my grand- 
father intimately, and he spoke of him in the highest terms for purity, 
dignity and genuine Christian character. His picture represents a 
man of unusual uobilitj' of force and person, with a head of strongly 
marked intellectual power. That these two men should have succes- 
sively filled the pulpit of this church for so many years, in the midst 
of so intelligent and educated a people as those of Amherst, is a suffi- 
cient endorsement of their fitness for their calling. 1 believe it was 
owing to the influence of xny grandfather, that the academy at 
Amherst was founded, which afterwards became the nucleus of the 
present College. Trusting the anniversary will prove most interest- 
ing to all who attend it, 1 can only regret that the larger part of all 
the puritans, men and women, who upheld the banner of the cross in 



96 

this church, " have fallen asleep," and their memory alone remains, 
a precious legacy to their descendants. 

With the higliest respect, I am very sincerely yours, 

R. C. Parsons. 



Knoxvilh. Teim.. .Sept. SO, JSS9. 
Rev. (t. S. Dickkuman, 

Dear Sir: 
Your letter of the "ilth iust. calls up botli sad and pleasiiiit remin- 
iscences, and J wish it were possible for me to be with you on the 7th 
Nov., proximo. But that seems now impossible. I am sorry to say 
that we never had any portrait or otlier likeness of my father and I 
have no recollection of him, as I was but two years and nine months 
old when he died. Pi'of. Tyler can give you much valuable information 
regarding him and can probably furnish you a copy of Prof. Fiske's 
funeral discoin-se. I have some of his sermons, as also of Dr. David 
Parsons, and will send you one or two of each, if my brother, .John 
II., does not anticipate me. I have been so long remote from the 
place of my nativity that 1 am somewhat like the "lost tribes," but 
should you fail to receive from those nearer what you need, I shall 
considei- it a pi'ivilege to send you the little I have. 

Yours very sincerely, 

W. P. Washburn. 



239 W. 54 St.. Neio York, Oct. 19. 1SS9. 

Mr. Kingsbury sends his congratulations and kind regards to the 
First Church of (hi-ist in Amherst, and thanks it heartily for the 
invitation to be present at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
its organization. 

Feeble health makes it imp()ssilil(> for him to attend the exercises, 
which he knows will be so full of interest. lie is often touched and 
gratified by word which comes to him from time to time, showing him 
that his son's pastorate, though so short, is still held in affectionate 
remembrance, and his work while in Amherst not forgotten. 

With best wishes for the (continued success of the church, in which 
IVIiss Kingsltury joins, ;ind adds her regrets to those of her father that 
she is unable to be present on Nov. 7, 

Sinceri'ly yours, 
(J. R. KiNGSiJUuv, (per II. J>. K). 



Se),>^ra Falls. N. V.. Oct. 22. ISS9. 
CoMMirrKK OK Invitation Fikj^t Cihk* h of CinasT, Amiikksi, Mass. 
Dear Brethren : — 

I o'reatly regret that I eaniiot liave the pleasure and [iriviU-sie of 
Iieing- present at the coming anniversary of your ehnrch's oiganization. 

1 have reason for special interest in this event. My grandfather, 
Rev. Josiah Bent, having died lifty years ago, while pastor of your 
church, and this sunmu'r his widow, after a half century of suffering. 
and triumphant witnessing to the sustaining power of the faith, passed 
to her reward and rest. All these years she retained her membership 
with you, and all thtse years, may 1 say. she was an active member 
in the truest sense. 

During a pjirt of my (college coarse I had the |)rivilege of worship- 
I)ing in this, the church of my parents and grandparents, and now 
join with the many wIk^ pray for an especial blessing upon church 
and people. 

W'l'v sincerely yours, 

KdWIN 11. I)l( KINSON. 



Otfaini, h'nisKs. Od . 21. IS'S9. 
Mk Wm. W . Hint: 

With deep emotion 1 acknowli'dgt' the cordial invitation to be 
present at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First church 
to be celebrated November seventh. Most gladly would I be with 
vou to meet the dear friends of the Church of Christ and many others 
whose familiar faces and friendly greetings are fresh in my mind as I 
am now writing. The dearest friend, aside from my own family, was 
Mrs. Lucius Boltwood. A true and loving sister has been called to 
the mansion on higij. She has written me once in two weeks since 
her son was taken from her. But 1 only intended to reply to the kind 
invitation to myself and childi-en. Circumstances, I fear, will not 
admit of any of us being [)resent. In imagination 1 see the familiar 
faces and hear the pleasant voices of beloved pastors and people. I 
have fresh in mind the pastors Rev. David Parsons, D.D., Rev. Daniel 
A.Clark, Rev. Royal Washburn, Rev. Matthew T. Adams, Rev. Josiah 
Bent, Rev. Aaron M. Colton, Rev. Mr. liubbell. Rev. .1. L. .Jenkins 
and Rev. .Mr. Kingsl)ury. I remember Rev. David Rarsons in the 
pulpit with powdered wig, the sounding-b(xird over head and the deaf 
man standing uj) at his side, leaning on the pulpit, looking anxiously 

i;3 



^8 

to hear all he said. But to Mr. Colton and Mr. Jenkins I seem to 
feel bound more closely, for through sorrow and great affliction they 
were more with us. Rev. Mr. Dwight I have in fond remembrance. 
I loved pastors and people. Many I liave been with in joy and in 

sorrow. 

■' Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love." 
If Mrs. Boltwood were living how gladl}' would she open her beau- 
tiful h(nne and welcome ministers and people I How much Mr. Carter, 
Deacon Clark, Mr. Zebina Montague, Deacon Sweetser, and too many 
to mention, would have enjoyed the meeting I You know not how 
much I have longed to take by the hand my old friends in Amherst. 
Many thanks to the Committee for remembering me and my family in 
our Kansas home. 

Yours with kind remembrance. 

Electa S. Boltwcjod. 



VacaviUe, CaL, Oct. 13, IS89. 
Dear Friend : 

Y''ours of the seventh inst., covering the invitation card to the 
Church's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, came to hand to-day. 
I had noticed with interest the allnsions in the Jxfcord to this event, 
so full of interest to all who love the old First church, and while it 
will be impossible for us to be with you in person we shall certainly 
be with you in spirit, and in thoughts on that day. I recall in child- 
hood the earnest preaching of Mr. Colton, in boyhood the scholarly, 
cogent sermons of Mr. Dwight under whose ministry I was led to 
see and confess my need of Christ as my Saviour ; — in young manhood 
I was welcomed to membership in the church by iNIr. Hubbell, who 
gave his earliest and most faithful labors to the church as its pastor. 
During his ministry my children (now living) were baptised, thus 
securing a place in that household of faith. And of what Mr. .leiikins 
did for us as individual Christians, and for the cluin-h in its material 
prosperity, you and 1 know too well here to recount. Let the recol- 
lection of those memorable days aijd months when the new church 
was being built, — of the noble men who labored and gave for it, as 
such men only could, yes, let the magnificent edilice itself testify, as 
it shall in the ages to come. And then followed tlie brief but beautiful 
work of the Sainted Kingsbury, whom (Jod sent here to gutiier our 



99 

children into the fold, before God took him ; and then how were we 
held and swayed by the masterful sermons of Emerson, and while we 
were but just coming under the pastorate of ^Ir. Dickermau our 
connection with the church was severed but our interest in the church 
has not and never can be severed. * * * * Please give kindest 
regards to all friends. 

Yours as of old, 

Geo. ^V. Allen. 



Hymn. Tune " Pleyel's Hymn." Composed by Dr. V. W. Leach. 



Hail Jehovah ! God our King ! 
Loud hosaunas let us i-aise 
And to Thee glad tributes bring 
On thi!< (lay of joy and praise. 

Tender meni'ries strike the chord, 
Present blessings swell the song. 
Coming ages praise the Lord 
And the chorus thus prolong. 

Generations gone to rest 
Toiled and prayed and passed away, 
We in them so richly blessed 
Magnify their lives to-day. 

Guide us Lord, and lead us still 
In the way Thy feet have trod. 
May we live to do Thy will, 
Pressing on to Heaven and God. 

LOFa 



OLD DOGUMBNO^S 

S/iowii at the Annivcrnari/. 



ONE OF TFIE EIHST DEEDS. 

[The houiesteacl of Dr. Nathaniel Smith passed to his daughter Rebecca who 
married Jonathan Smith, and thence to their daughter Jerusha who married 
Col. Elijah Dickinson. The land given by Col. Dickinson for the college 
was a part of this estate.] 

To all People to whom these Presents shall Come Greeting, Know ye that 
I Ichabod Smith of Hadley In the County of Hampshire In the Province of 
the masechuset Bay In New England have of my own free will and In con- 
sideration of the Paternal Love and aft'ection which I liave and Doe bare unto 
my Dutiful! and Loving Son nathaniell Smith of Hadley aftbre said and as 
Seventy Pounds Portion out of my Estate : Have Given Granted Bargened 
& Bequethed fully and abselutely given and Pased over unto him my said son 
nathaniell Smith his Heirs Exed; adminds & assigns as a Good Estate of 
Inheretence In fee simple: a sartain Parsell of Land Lying in the Second 
Devesion of out Land within the Bemuds of the township of Hadley attbre- 
said : viz. one half of that Lot Laid out & Recorded to me the said Ichabod 
Smith: the south side of said Lot and In bredth nineteen Rods containing 
twenty Eight acres and one half of an acre : and is Bounded north on part of 
the same Lot given to my son aron antl south on the Lot that was m'' Gorge 
Stillmons : East and west on a high way or street : and also two peesis ont 
of that Lot which was Laid out to m'' Gorge Stillmon viz. twelve acres on 
the north side of said Lot In bredth Eight Rods and Bounded south on part 
of the same Lot given to my son aron and north on Land given to him my 
said son nath" as above said : East and west on a high way or street: and 
twenty nine acres and a half on the south side of Said Lot In l)redth nineteen 
Rods and a half : Bounded north on post of the same Lot (given to my son 
aron) : and south on a high way : and East and west on a high way or street 
be the said Land more or less : To have to hold Posses and Injoy to himself 
his Heirs Exed; adminds & assigns for Ever: with all the Rights Profits 
Benefits appurtenances and Preveledis thereto belonging : and I the said 
Icabod Smith for my self & Heirs &c. Doe Covenant and agree with my Son 
natlr^^' attbre said his Heirs: &c. that I have full & Lawful! power to Give & 
Grant the same as att'ore said : and that the same is free & Clere from all for- 
mer Gifts. Grants Sales Judgments Executions and Incumbrancis, and that 
for Ever here after I will stand to defend him my said son nath"^' and his 



101 

Heirs &c. In the quiet & peasable Possession of the above ffraned premises 
against the LawfuU Demands of all Persons whatsoever: In witness of all 
wliich I set to my hand & seal this 12 Day of Dec"" T780, In the tliird year of 
gorge ye Second King &c. 



Signed Sealed and Delivered ) 
In Presents and witness of )' 



Ichabode Smith 
Hamp»"", Ss Dec'' 12'" 17;}(). 



Then m'" Ichabod Smith 
Eleaz Porter before me the Subscriber 

Sarah Porter aclinowledges this 

Johanah r> Barnard Instrument to be his act 

her mark and Deed 

Elea' Porterllustc peace 

Rec** &, Recorded DeC^ the: 14''': 17:50: In the records of the County of 
Hampshire : book N : E : Page : 501 : — : 

.lohn Pvnchon Reg"^ 



A CALL 

TO MR. DAVID PARSONS JUN. 

HADLEY THIRD* PRECINCT 

To Mr. David Parsons Junr at present Improved in the work of the Minis- 
try in North Hampton Village. 

The Inhabitants of this Preceinct att a Meeting held by them Janeway ye 
10 : 1738 agreed to give you a Call to Settle among us as oure Gospel Minis- 
ter and for youre Encouragement to accept oure Request we have passed ye 
following Votes 
For Settelment 

Voted 1 : two L(jts of Land Lying in the Second and third Devesion of 
Lands granted by the Town of Hadley for the Settling of a Gospel 
Minister in this preceinct. 

2. To Build a Dweeling House so far as follows : to set up a frame 
forty foots in lenth : twenty one foots in breth two Story in heith also 
to Cover said House ye Roof with Sprice Shingles : ye body w quai'ter 
boards : and Build ye Chimney and Celler and also to set up a Cithing : 
and Cover it as ye grate House and also to build ye Chimney to s"* 
Cithing. 

*In 1753 .South Hadley was incorporated as a District, aiul Amherst became the second 
Precinct of Hadley till 1759 when it also was made a District. 



102 

For Sallery 

Voted 1 to give one hundred pounds the first yeare in Province Bills as it 

is now vallied by the^ounce in Silver — also to add yearly as heads and 

Estates shall Increas in this preceinct the same upon the pound as it 

amounts in Raising ye first hundred : yearly untill it amounts to one 

Hundred and sixty 

2 to provide his fire wood yearly 
They further Required us the Subscribers to Present this theire Request to 

you with the Encouragement annexed : withal to Signify the unanimity 

of the people in their Choice and Request 
We therefore as a committee in the behalf of the Preceinct Intreat you to 

take the matter in Consideration and as soone as youre Circumstances 

will allow Return us youre Answer. 
(Added in different ink.) 
Voted that they will allow nir Dickinson- 
forty shillings for his preaching with us 
one day and half some time sinse 

John Nash Jn '\ Commity in 

Ebnz Dickinson I the behalf of 
Richard Cnauncey J the Preceinct 

Hadley third preceinct Janew^ 10. 173^ 
at a preceinct Meeting 

Voted 1 y' Each head and team shall go one day in a yeare to get his fire- 
wood during ye tinie of his Ministry in s'^ preceinct 
Voted 2 to give Mr. Benjamin Dickinson forty shillings for preaching in 
this preceinct in time past 

attested Ebnz Dickinson | moderator 

To the Inhabitants of the 2"^ Precinct in Hadly at their Precinct meeting 

on Decem^^' IS"" : 1754. 

Beloved : 

As I am Informed you are convened upon the Annual Buisness : of 
Passing Precinct Debts I take the freedom again to ask for an addition 
to my Salary the Present year : — your kindness to my Request : the former 
year," I cant but Remember with" Grattitude to Providence & you : without 
which I dont see how I could have carried it thro the year without Distress- 
ing myself & Damaging others : The great unanimity Avith which yo\ir kind- 
ness was done rendered it to me more especially agreeable & encourages me 
to ask you again for help :— To enter into a Detail of my necessities; would 
be as uncom fortable I Believe to you to hear as me to tell :— Let it suffice 
only to put you in mind, that my salary is very small; my Debts are large; 
mychargcs are very Considerable and Encveasiug. 

I Hope what may be done will l)e done with the like unanimity & good 
affection as heretofore which I am sure will he very much to the Satisfaction 

of your obliged and 

Atlectionate Pastor 

David Parsons. 

The Precinct Records for December 13, 1754 contain the following 

clause. 

" Voted 1 to add to the Rev'd Mr. David Parsons SoUary for this yeai'e 
ninty two pountl teen shillings old tennor." 



Appendix to Historical Address. 



A. 

ANCESTRY AND FAMILIES OF THE FOUNDERS. 

The following tables have been prepared to show with greater clear- 
ness whence the founders of Araherst came and how their families 
were interrelated. The names of the sixteen who became members of 
the Church at its organization and of the twenty-eight who united with 
them on the following January are printed in small capitals. The 
columns are so arranged that the names in each column, except the 
last, are of children whose parents' names are immediately to the right 
— the father's above and the mother's beneath, united by a brace. 
The last column to the right is, for the most part, of the early colonists 
who came from England and the place of settlement is indicated bv 
the abbreviation. Often, however, these persons had been in different 
colonies. Most of them had been at first in some one of the settle- 
ments in Eastern Massachusetts, and had gone thence to other places, 
in a few instances to a number of places, one after the other. In 
such cases only one colony is named and prefereuce is given to towns 
of the Hartford grou]). 

The Amherst names on pages 10;j-10!) are of those who came first 
to this Precinct. These are from Hadley and Hatfield, aud their 
ancestors, except the C'haunceys, were mostly from Hartford and 
vicinity. On pages 110-111 are the names of several, including the 
Rev. David Parsons, who came after the settlement had become 
established, but was yet in its beginnings. Part of these were from 
other towns than Hadley- and Hatfield. Mr. Parsons was from 
Leicester, Simeon Strong, Esq., Dea. Pklwards and Dea. Clarke from 
Northampton, Dea. Smith from Longmeadow ; and Dea. Coleman, 
though of Hatfield himself, had a wife from New Haven of that sterlino- 
family whence came Dr. Lyman Beecher. It will be seen that these 



104 

last had more widely extended family comiections, and this, no doubt, 
brought the community into broader associations and a more expansive 
life. 

Names in the first colunu) on the left are of children of the founders, 
the figures attached showing years of births. Dates used in the tables 
are only of years and in a few cases the date is only probable. The 
space does not allow more particulars. When the line of a famil}' 
has been once given it is not repeated but referred to with " See 
above " or " !See p." 

A few names of the earliest settlers in Amherst will not be found 
in the tables. These are of persons concerning whom the records are 
scanty, and none of them had families in Amherst, so far as we know. 

Philip JMattoon, p. 105 was a soldier who came with tapt. Wm. 
Turner from Eastern Massacliusetts, having been received by him 
with others from Capt's Wadsworth and Reynolds at Marlboro. He 
settled in Deerfield and died there. His previous history is not known. 
The name " Philippe Maton" is given however among the immigrants, 
" Walloons and French," from England to Virginia in 1621 ; and 
Virginia w^as then understood to include New England. This Philippe 
Maton had a wife and five children, one of whom may have been the 
Philip of Deerfield. 

Joseph Clary removed to Leverett about 1 770 and with his two sons, 
Joseph and Elisha, was conspicuous in the early history of that place. 
The town records of Leverett contain nuich concerning this family. 

Richard Chauncey removed to Whately and was a founder of the 
Church which was organized there Aug. 21, 1771. 

Josiah Chauncey removed about 1781 to the western part of Albany 
Co., now Schenectady Co., N. Y., where both himself and his wife 
are believed to have died within a year from the time of their removal. 

Full and well tabulated records of descendants of the early families 
of Amhei'st are to be found in the Town Clerk's office at Amherst. 

These tables have been carefully compiled fi'om the History and 
viavnscripts of kiylvesler Jncld, Olcutt's History of Stratford, The 
Strong Fa /nil I/. The Tattle Family. Savage's Gm. Dictiouary, N. E. 
Hist, and (<eii. Register and other works. If errors shonld be found 
they will not invalidate the general conclusions. 
ABBREVIATIONS. 



1). 


Ijorii. 


(1. 


died. 


11). 


married. 


B. 


HostDii. 


K. 


Faniiiiif^toii. 


Sp. 


SpriiiLffleld. 


C. 


tamliridge. 


llr. 


Ilartlord. 


St. 


Stratt'ord. 


Ch. 


Cluirleston. 


L. 


Longmeadow. 


We. 


Wetlierslield, 


D. 


D;Hlh:irn. 


N.n. 


New Kaven. 


\Vi. 


Windsor. 


Dor. 


Dorcliester. 


Reh. 


Rehoboth. 







105 



Ttin and 
iiif//iters. 



rtin, 
b. 1718 
enezer. 



Amherxt 
Founders 



' EBZ. KELLOr,(i 

b. 1G95, d. 176t>. 

in. ITHi. 



Eliz. Ingram. 

I b. 1691. 



r John Inorram. 



n. '20. 

m|;,l: \ '^- 16«3. .1. 1737. 



in, '3o. 
uben.'3'2. 
en. '87. 



m. 1719. 
Ltd. Boltwood. 

I )). 1(596, (1. 1779. 



f ELE.A.Z. MATTOOX. 

zab. '18. I ^- 1690, fl. 1767. 
en. '20. { ™- 1"1^- 

•ah '2.3. I ^ „ 

El. P.OLTwoon. 
I b. 1681. 



f John Nash, 
inth. '17. I I). i(i!i4, il. 177S. 
vid, '19. ) m. 1716. 

mi'h,'23. I 
in- I Han. Ingram. 

I b. 1697. 



r Aaron Smith, 
1, '2.5. b. 1700, (1. I7.i;t. 

iiim.'i '26. j m. 1724. 



ilip, '29. 
ron, '32. 



JlEH. Ingram, 

b. 1698. 



Third 
(ienrratioii. 



f Ntl Kellogg. 
I b. 1669, d. 17.')0. 
I m. 1692. 



Sar. Holtwood 
b. 1672. 



f John Ingram. 

I b. 1(;6). 

I ni. 1689. 



I 

I Meh. Dickinson- 



John Ingram. 



Phil. Mattoon. 

m. 1677. 
Sarnb Hawkes. 
b. 1657, d. 1751. 



r John Nash. 

b. 1667, d. 1743. 
ni. 1691. 

Eliz. Kelloarsc. 
I h. 1673, d. 1750. 

./OHN Ingram. 



r lohahod Smith. 
I b. 1675, d. 1746. 
< m. 1698. 

I Eliz. Cook. 



.JoHx Ingram. 



Second 
Generation. 

\ Jos. Kcllos,!?, F. 
I b. 1628, d. 1708. 
{ m. 2nd 1667. 

I Abi^. Terrv. 
I bap. 1646. 

f Sam. Boltwood. 
J slain 1704. 

1 Sarah Lewis. 
I b. 1652, d. 1722. 

John Ingram. 

b. 1642, d. 1722. 
m. 1664. 
I Eliz. Gardner. 
I d. 1684. 

f Jno Dickinson. 
I d. 1676. 



Frances Foote. 

See above. 
Sam. Boltwood. 



.Ino. Hawkes, Wi 
d. 1662. 



Sam. Boltwood. 



Timothy Nash, 

b. 1626, d. 1699. 

m. 16,57. 

I Rebecca Stonci 

I d. 1709 
•los. Kellog-g. 



See above. 



Philip Smith, 
b. 1633, d. 1685. 

I Rebecca Foote. 

S Aaron Cook. 
' Sar. "Westwood. 

See above. 



m.r8t 

Settlers , 



Steph. Torry, Wi. 
d. 16GS 

Rob. Boltwood, We. 

d. 16S4. 
Wm. Lewis, Hr. 
Mary Hopkins. 



Sam. Gardner, We. 
b. 1615, d. 1696. 

Ntl Dickinson, We. 

d. 1676. 
Ntl Foote, We. 

m. 1646. 
Eliz. Smith, We. 
b. 1627. 

dau. Sam. Smith. 



See above. 

Thos, Nash, X. H. 

Sam. Stone, Hr. 



Sam. Smith, We. 
b. 1602, d. 1680. 



Ntl Foote, We. 



Aaron Cook, Wi. 
Wm. Westwood. Hr. 



■u ,.,- [ Xtl Smith, 
rt'07 ' J b. 1702, d. 1789 
■■'thy. =29. ■> "1- 1"2"- 



jec'a,'31. 



Reb. Insrram. 
b. 1704. 



Ichabod Sniitli. See above. 

.John Ingram. See above. 



Icon, '20. 

dJen*^'^' f Rl^Z- DICKINSON, 
eph ■•30. ''• ■•■.!1". ']. 1780. 

iijaii. < m.\,ii\. 

•ah. I 

ry, '37. I Sar. Kellocjcj. 
■usha. b. 1701, d. 1743. 

per. '41. 



N'Tt, Kellog 



r Neh. Dickinson. Ntl Dickinson, Wo. 
! b. 1644, d. 1723. d. 1676. 



t Mary Cowls. 
See above. 



.Jolm Cowls, F. 



106 



Sons and 
Daughters. 



Antherst 
Founders. 



A)Mgail,'23. 
Jonath. 'm. 
Martin. 
David. 
Noah. '42. 
Hannah. 
Rebecca. 
Jerusha. 



f JONA. Smith. 
! b. Ifi89, d. 177c« 



m. 1722. 



I Han'h 



Wright. 



Elizab., '22 

Pehiti., '24. . 
Abigail, '26. ' 
Lucy, '28. 



Pelet. Smith. 
b. 1694. 

m. 1721. 



Abigail Wait. 



Oliver, '30. 
Elizab., '32. 
Eunice, '3.i. 
Jerii9h.,'41. 
Medad, '44. 
Abigail, '48. 



Elizab., '41. 
Hannah. 
Theoda. 
Mary, '.54. 
Eunice, '.56. 
Naomi. 
Will'rd, '61. 



r R. Chauncey. 

b. 1703, d. 1790. 
m. 1729. 



Eliz. Smith. 
b. 1708, d. 1790. 



r David Smith. 
b. 1707, d. 1771. 



liucy, '46. 
Dorothy, '48 
Jona., '49. i 
Joel, '.il. ■) 
SamueU'.'jS. i 
Stough. ,'.')'). 
Daniel, '.56. | 



Third 
Generation. 

( Jona. Smith. 
J d. 1737. 

1 m. 1688. 

I A BIG. Kellogg. 
b. 1671. 

{Benoni Wright, 
b. 1675, d. 1702. 
Rebecca Barrett. 



Sam'l Smith, 
b. 166.5, d. 1724. 
m. 1687. 



Sarah Bliss. 
I b. 1697. 



r Wm. Wait. 
' d. 17.32. 



Sarah Kingslev- 
b. 1665, d. i69L 

Is. Chauncey. 
b. 1670, d. 1745. 



I Sarah Blackleach. 
[ b. 1681, d. 1720. 



Jona. Smith. 

f Luke Smith, 
b. 1666. 
m. 1690. 



Han'h Willard. 
b. 1722, d. 1809. 



Jona. Dickinson, 
b. 171.5. 
m. 1745. 



Dorothy Stoughton 
b. 1715. 



Mary Crow. 
1^ b. 1672, d. 1761. 



Josiah Willard. 
m. 16.57. 

Han'h Hosmer. 

f Sam'l Dickinson. 
I b. 1682, d. 1747. 

m. 1711. 
Han'h Marsh. 

b. 1690. 



f John Stoughton. 

b. 1683, d 1746. 

m. 1706. 



Eunice Bissell. 
b. 1686, d. 1773. 



Second 
Generation. 

Phil. Smith, 
b. 1633, d. 1685. 
Rebec. Foote. 

Jos. Kellogg. 

Sam'l Wright. 

slain 1675. 

m. 16.)3. 
Elizabeth Burt. 

Benj. Barrett. 

f Chileab Smith, 
b. 1635, d. 1731. 

m. 1661. 
Han. Hitchcock, 
b. 1645, d. 1733. 

Lawr. Bliss. 

m. 1654. 
Lvdia Wright. 



First 
Settlers. 
Sam'l Smith, We. 

Xatli'I Foote, We. 

See p. 105. 

Sam'l Wright, Sp. 

Henry Burt, Sp. 



Sam'l Smith, We. 
b. 1602, d. 1680. 

L. Hitchcock, We. 



Thos. Bliss, Hr. 
Sam'l Wright, Sp. 

Enos Kingslev. J- Kingsley, Reh. 

m. 1662. 
Sarah Haynes. Edm. Haynes, Sp. 

Isr.Chauneev,St. ( Ch. Chauncey, C. 

b. 1644, d. 1TO2-3. ) d. 1671. 

m. 1667. ( Catharine Eyre. 
Mary Nichols. Isaac Nichols, St. 



R. Blackleach, St 
d. 1731, ae. 78. 

m. 1680. 
Abig. Hudson. 
I d. 1712, ae. 60. 



See above. 

Chileab Smith. 

r Sam'l Crow. 
I slain 1676. 

m. 1671. 

Han'h Lewis. 



John Hudson, V. H. 



See above. 

f John Crow, Hr. 
J d. 1686. 

) Eliz. Goodwin. Hr. 
[ dau. Wm. Goodwin 

\ Wm. Lewis, Hr. 
ji Mary Hopkins. 



Simon Willard. Rich. Willard, C. 

b. 1605. 

Marv Sliari)e. Henrv Sharpe. 

I b. 1614. 



Th. Hosmer, Hr. 

Neh. Dickinson. 

Jonathan Marsh, 
b. 16.50, d. 1730. 
m. 1676. 
t Dorcas. 

f .lohn Stoughton. 
I b. 16.57, d. 1712. 
m. 1682. 

Eliz. Bissell. 
b. 1666, d. 1688. 

(■ Thos. Bissell 2nd 

1). 1656, d. 1738. 
•{ m. 1078. 

I Esther Strong. 
L b. 1661, d. 1726-7. 



Ntl Dickinson, We. 
r John Marsh, Hr. 
I d. 1688. 

1 Ann Webster. 
L dau. of John, Hr 

f Thos. Stoughton. 
J son of Thiini;is, Wi 
I Mary Wadsworth. 

dau. of William, ilr 

Thos. Bissoll. 

son of John, Wi. 

Abigail Moore. 

dau. of John, Wi. 



John Strong, Wi. 
Abigail Ford, Wi. 



107 



Sonn find 
Dauifliti'rs. 



Ainheritt 

Foil iidfrs. 



Anne. 

Elijali. 
Sarah. 
Zeclia., '43. 
.Idlni, '46. 
Miiiain, '49 
Mohitabel. 
Zeclia., '5:5. 



r Sam'l Hawlev. 
I d. 17.-)0, 

ra. 17.!(i. 



Sarah Field. 
b. 1714. 



Third 

Oenefittioii. 

f Sam'l Hawlev. 
b. ICSfi. 
m. 170S. 



INIEH. BELDING. 

b. 1087. 



r Zech. FieM. 

b. I(i7(;, <1. 1738. 
■( m. 170.). 

I Sarah Clark. 



Second 
Geni'i'iition, 

( Jos. Hawley. 

' Lyit. Marshall. 

f Sam. Belding. 
■ 1). 16.i7, (1. 1737. 
ni. H)78. 
Sar. Fellowes. 
L d. 1713. 

f John Field, 
d. 1717. 
m. 1070. 
Mary Edwards. 

John Clark. 
Rebec. C.)oper. 



Ft »•.■*« 

Si'ttlerx. 
Th. Hawley, Rox. 

S. Mar.'shall, Wi. 
Mary Wilton, Wi. 

S. Beldinfi, We. 
d. 1713. 

R. Fellowes, Hr. 
d. 1G33. 

Zech. Field, Ilr. 
d. '06. 

A. Edwards, Sp. 

Wm. Clark, Dor. 
Th. Cooper, Wi. 



Asena., '39. f jos. Hawley. 
Josepli, '44. I d. 17.i(). 

Joseijh, '48. { m. 17:57. 

Abii^ail. I Rebi'X. Field. 
Rebecca. \ b. 1711. 



Sam. Hawley. 
Zech. Field. 



See above. 
See above. 



John, '40. 

Abi,;,'-ail,'4-2. 

Martha, '43. , . , ^i, 1 1 

.M,M-v, '40. f «^o''» '"'P'i'- 

Abigail, '48. I "• l''^" 

S;irall, '50. { 

Eben'r, '52. j 

Samuel, '.i4. (^ AuiG. Boltwood. 

Jemiin..'55. 

.Jonath.,'5y. 

Zechariah. 



Zech. Field. 

r Sam. Boltwood. 
b. 1079, d. 17:58. 

m. 1703. 
Han. Alexander. 



Mar. Boltwood. Sam. Boltwood. 



See above. 

Sam. Boltwood. 

Ntl Alexander. 
Ilan'h Allen. 

See above. 



See p. 105. 

(i. Alexander, Wi. 
S Sam. Allen, Wi. 
) H. Woodford, Hr. 



Mary, '38. 
Moses. 



f Moses Warner, 
b. 1715, d. 1772. 
{ m. 17:58. 

I Marv Field. 
[ b. 1716. 



Jacob Warner, 
b. 1687, d. 1747. 



Zech. Field. 



Jacob Warner. 

d. 1711. 
Eliz. Goodman. 

See above. 



And. Warner. Hr. 

<1. 1684. 
R. Goodman, Hr. 
Mary Terry, Wi. 



Ruth, ':«. 
Rhoda, '35. 
Thorn's, '39. 
Lydia, '4-2. 
John, '45. 
Joseph, '.50. 



f John Morton. 
I m. 17:50. 



I Lydia Hnwley. 
1. b. 1710, d. 1793. 



.Jos. Morton, 
b. 1672, d. 17:50. 



Marv Marsh, 
b. 1078. 



Sam. Hawley. 



Rich. Morton, Hr. 
d. 1710. 
I Sam'l Marsh. 
J b. 1045, il. 1728. 
) m. 1007. 

(■ Mary Allison. 

See above. 



John Marsh, Hr. 
See p. 106. 



Ephr'm,'42. f 

Martin, '44. | 

Dorotli.,'46. I 

Abigail, '48. { 

John, '51. I 

Sarah, '53. | 

Joseph, '58. I, 



Eph. Kellosrs. 

b. 17a9, d. 1777. 

m. 1741. 



Dor. Hawlev. 
b. 1723. " 



f Ntl. Kellogg. 
I b. 1609, d. 1750. 
i in. 1092. 

Sar. Boltwood. 
I- b. 1672. 

Sam. Hawlev. 



Jos. Kellogg. 
Abig. Terry. 



See p. 105. 
Step. Terry, Wi. 



Sam. Boltwood. See above. 
See above. 



108 



Sont and 
Daughters. 



Amhprst 
Founders. 



Sarah, '32. 
Elisha, '33. 
Joseph, '36. 
Joseph, '37. 
Sarali, '40. 
Gersh., '42. 
Gei'sh., '55. 



f Joseph Clary. 

b. 1705. 

m. 1729. 



Sarah Gunn. 
b. 1710. 



Third 
Generation. 

I Joseph Clary. 
I b. 1677, (1. 1748. 
■[ m. 1702. 

! Hau'h neldiiig. 
I b. KiSl. 

f Sam'l Gunn. 
b. 1002, (I. 17.i5. 
m. 1685. 



Eliz. Wyatt. 
d. 1737. 



Second 
Generation. 

( Jolin Clary. 
I d. 1688. 

j m. 1670. 

[ Ann Dickinson. 

Sam'l Belding. 

f Ntl. Gunn, Hr. 
I m. 1658. 

) Sarah Dav. 



I 



slain 1677. 

Jno. Wvatt, Wi. 

d. 1(56-'. 
M. Brownson. 



First 
Settiers. 
John Clary, Wat. 

N. Dickinson, We. 
See p. 107. 



Robt. Day, Hr. 
E. Stebbins. 



J. Brownson, Hr. 



Israel, '26. f f^".£"^''^''- 
Abia, '29. I "• ''00. 
John, '31. < ,, 
Martha, '34. I T'^lLl?,.- , ,.„^ 
Mary, '42. I b- 1'06, d. 1,95. 



r Jona. Cowls. 
I 1). 1671, d. 17.56. 
I m. 1697. 



I Prud. Frarv. 
I b. 1677, d. 17.56. 



r John Cowls. 
J b.lC41,d. 1711. 
I m. 1668. 

I Debo. Bartlett. 

r Elizar. Frary. 
I d. 1709. 

■! m. 1666. 

I Mary Graves. 
I b. 1647. 



John Cowls, F. 
d. 1675. 

Rob't Bartlett, Hr. 

Jno. Frary, Ded. 



Isaac Graves, Hr. 

slain 1677. 
M. Church, Hr. 



Sarah, '32. 
Oliver, '35. 
Jerush.,'37. 
Jonatii.,'3!'. 
David, '41. 
Josiah, '44. 
Eleaz'r, '46. 
Reuben, '49. 
Enos, '52. 
Simeon, '56. 



Jona. Cowt.s. 

b. 1703, (1. 1776. 
ni. 1732. 



Sar. Gaylord. 

I b. 1709, d. 1790. 



Jona. Cowls. 



f Sam'l Gavlord. 
I b. 1676, d.' 1734. 
I m. 1702. 



I 

I Mary Dickinson. 



See above. 

Wm. Gaylord. 

b. 1651, d. 16-:0. 

m. 1671. 

Ruth Crow. 



Nell. Dickinson. 

b. 1644. 
Mary Cowls. 



Wm. Gaylord. Wi. 
Ann Porter. 

John Crow, Hr. 

d. 1686. 
Eliz. Goodwin, 
dau. W.Goodwin, Hi 

Neh. Dickinson, Wc 

Jno. Cowls, F. 



John. '.36. 
Josiah, '40 
Abigail, '.50. < 
Abigail, '52 



Nathan Moody. 

h. 1706, d. 1791. 

m. 1735. 



An. Montague. 
b. 1713. 



Elijah, '2.^ 
Will'm, 
Dorotli.,'-.9. 
David, '.3.5. 
Seth, '36. 
Hann'h,'44. 



Sam'l Moody. 

b. 1670, d. 1744. 

m. 1700. 



Sarah Lane. 



f Jno. ^lontague. 
I b. bisi, ,1. 172i. 
111. 1712. 



Mind. Lyman. 



6. r Wm. Murray. 



■^ m l"-''? ^ '^""' I^ickinson. 

[ Han'A Di'ckiNSON. J "'• "ni'','(!j;y"'"- 

1 Sarah'. 

I d. 1707. 



Sam'l Moody. 

d. 1689. 
Sarah Doming 

d. 1717. 

Sam'l Lane, 
m. 1677. 
S. Dickinson. 



f Jno. Montaj,nie. 
) d. 1732. 

i 111. if;si. 
L Han'h Smith. 

Thos. Lyiran. 
111. li"78. 

Ruth Hjlten. 



f Ntl. Dickinson. 

J 1). 1643, d. 1710. 

) Mann ill. 
I d. 1679. 



Jno. .Moody, Hr. ; 
John Deniing, We. 

William Lane, B. 

John Dickinson, We 

d. 1676. 
R. I\Iontaa;ue, We. 
b. 1614, d."l6Sl. 
Abiif. Downing. 

d. 1694. 
Chileab Smith. 

Rich. Lyman, Hr. 
Hep. Ford, Wi. 

Wm. Holten, Hr. 
b. 1611, d. 1691. 

N. Dickinson, We. 



109 



Sous and 



Amherst 
Founders. 



oloni., 
anui'l, 
)orc;is, 
osiah, 
arali, ' 
:stlicr, 
olom.. 



'43. 
'45. 
'50. 



r Clias. Wright, 
b. 1719, (1. 1793. 
ni. 1742. 



RlTH BOLTWOOD. 

I b. 17-2-2, d. 180G. 



Third 
Geiiertition. 



( .Sam. Wright, 
b. 1693. 
m. 1717. 



I Jc'inima Kiiia 



f Sol. Boltwood. 
J 1). 1694, (1. 1762. 
) Mar.y Xorton. 
I b. 1686, d. 1763. 



Second 
Generatim. 



ight. 
1697. 



f Jo.sepli Wr 
b. 1657, d. 



I 

[ Rutli Sheldon. 



f Sam. King. 

b. 1664, d. 1701. 
J m. 1690. 

Johan. Taylor. 
{ b. 1665! 



First 
Settlers. 
\ Sam. Wright, Sp. 
I Eliz. Burt, Sp. 



f Isaac Sheldon, Wi. 

I d. 1708. 

1 m. 1653. 

L M. Woodford, Hr. 

S John King. Hr. 
( Sarah Holton. 

f John Taylor. 

; slain 1704. 

j m. 1662. 

[ Th. Woodward, Dor. 



Sam. Boltwood. See p. 105. 

John Xorton, F. 
Ruth Moore. 



r Ch. Chauncev. 
;athar.,'41. | ij. ni-i. 

)oroth.,'44. I m. 1740. 

saac, '45. ' sarah Ingram. 



Uinice, '48. 
)avid,'.50. 



I m. 2nd, 1746. 
I Mary Gavlord 



iliz.B., '47. f 

lary, '49. 

a rah, '51. 

osiah, '.53. 

saac, '55. 

loses, '57. 

lose.-, '61. I Mary. 

anui 1, 63. 

amiiel,'64. ! 

osiah, '67. I, 



Josi. Channcej". 
b. 1716, d. 1782. 



Is. Chauncey. 

r Xtl Ingram. 
J b. 1674. 

1 m. 1696. 

I Esther Smith. 

■Sam. Gaylord. 



Is. Chauncey. 



See p. 106. 
John Ingram. 

Chil. Smith. 
See p. 108. 

See p. .106 



See p. 105. 
See p. 106. 



;ath'cl, 'liS. f 
rm.H.,'30. i 
:aclH'l, '.SI. 
Ialachi'32. I 
esse, '33. | 
;ber, '34. 
'imot., '36. j 
amuel,'37. ] 
lutb, '39. 
Ixpcr.. '.'59. I 
lary, '41. 
>avid, '44. 
onath.,'47. | 
!enjm.,'51. t 

te|(hen, f 

oel, j 

itus, 1 

lary, '27. L 



Xtl. Church, 
b. 1704. 
111. 1727. 



H. M'Crannery. 



Stephen Smith, 
b. 1797, d. 1750. 



r Sam. Church. 

I b. 1667, d. 1773. 
.> m. 1692. 

] .Vbig. Harrison 
(^ 1). 1673. 

I W. M'Crannery. 
.; m. 1685. 

I Marg. Riley. 
*- b. 1662.' 



Jonathan .Smith. 



Sam. Church. 

d. 1684. 
M. Churchill. 

\ Is. Harrison. 
/ .M. Montague. 



.lolm Riley. 
b. 1646. 



k'e p. 106. 



Rich. Church. Mr. 

d. 1667. 
J. Churchill. 



R. Montague, We. 



JohnRilev, We. 



loses, '33. 
ime'n, ".35. 
lMnii"h,'37. 
atliar..'39. 
./.ub"h,'41. 
;iizab.,'43. 
iinasa, '46. 
amncl,'48. 
:nad'h. '51. 
>liver. ".55. 



Moses 

b. 1708 



itli. 
1781. 



Hannah Childs. 



I(rliabod Smith. 



f Sanuiel Childs. 
.1. 17.-)6. 
m. 1709. 



Han'h Barnari 
b. 16.88, d. 1727. 



See p. 105. 
r Rirliard CliilcU 

I Eliz. Croc-ker. 



C Jos. Barnard. 
I slain 1695. 

•{ m. 1675. 

i Sarah Strong. 
I b. 16.-.ii, d. 1733. 



( Rich. Chihls. Barkh. 

m. 1649. 
( M.iry Linnell Barkh. 
( John Crocker,Barus. 
J m. 16.">9. 

( Mary Bodlish, Barns. 

1 Francis Barnard, Hr. 

m. 1644. 
( llaunah Maryin, Hr. 

John Strong, Wi. 



110 



Sons and 
Daughters. 



Amherst 
Foiindrrs. 



Eunice, '47. 
David, '49. 
Eunice, '.ol. 
Salome, '53. ) 
Mary, '5T. 
Gideon, '.5!i. 
Gideon,' (51. 
Leon'd, '64. 



Third 
feneration. 



David Parsons. 

b. IfiSO, d. 174:5. 

m. 1707. 



f Daviii Paiisoxs. i 
h. 1.1-2, d. 1781. I 

m. 1711. 



I Sarah Stebbins. 
I b 1686, d. 17.y.). 



f Gideon Welles. 

b. l(i!)>, d, 1740. 

m. 171(i. 



Eunice Welles. \ 

b. 172:5, d. 1740. I 



I Han'h Chester. 
I 1). 1690, d. 1749. 



Second 
Generation. 



f Jos. Parsons. 

b. 1647, d. 17-2!). 
! ni. 1(1(59. 

Eliz. Strong. 
1). 1(547, <i. 17:56. 



f Thos. Stebbins. 
I b. 1648, d. 1675. 
I m. 167-2. 



1 Abigail Mun. 
t b. 1650. 



f Rob't Welles. 
I m. 1675. 



I Eliz. Goodrich. 
I. b. 1(>58, d. 1698. 



f John Chester, 
b. 1656, d. 1711. 
m. 1686. 



1 Han'h Talcotl. 
L b. 1665, d. 1741. 



First 
Settlers. 

{ Jos. Parsons, Hr. 
I d. 1684. 

■{ m. 1646. 

I Marv Bliss, Hr. 
I b. 1(520, d. 1712. 

\ John Strong, Wi. 
} Abig. Ford, Wi. 

r Til. stebbins, Sp. 
J 1). 1620, d. 1(18:5. 
1 m. 1(545. 

I Han'h Wright, Sp. 

( Benj. iNiun, Hr. 

ill. 1619. 
( Abig. Burt, Sp. 

r John Welles, St. 
J b. 1621, d. 16.59. 
1 m. 1647. 

t Eliz. Bourne, St. 

f Wm. Goodrich, Hr. 

1 d. 1676. 

] m. 1648. 

I Sarali Marvin, Hr. 

r John Chester, Hr. 
I b. 16:5.5, d. 1698. 
^ m. 1(5.54. 

L Sarah VV^elles, Hr. 

f Sam. Talcott, Hr. 

d. 1601. 
-{ m. 16.54. 

Han'h Holvoke, .Sp. 
lb. 1644, d. 1679. 



Simeon Strong. 

b. 17:56, d. 1805. 

in. 176:5. 



Simeon, '64. 
Sallvi '66. 
Hezek., '69. 
Polly, '75. I 
John, '78. 
Solom.. ".80. 



Sarah Wright. 
I b. 17:59, d. 1783. 



Nell. Strong, 
b. 1694, d. 1772. 
ni. 1728. 



Han'h French, 
b. 1697, d. 1761. 



Stcpli. Wright. 

b. 1(190, d. 17(53. 

in. 1707. 



Esther cook, 
b. 1695. 



( Sam. Strong. 
{ b. 1(5.52, d. 1732. 
( Esther Clapp. 

Jona. French. 



I Sarah Warner. 
I b. 16(58. 



f Sam. Wright. 

b. 16.54, d. 17.34. 
J m. 1678. 

I Sarah Lviiiaii. 
I b. 16.58. 



f Noah Cook. 
j b. 16.57, d. 1699. 

I Sarah Nash. 



John Strong, Wi. 

Edw. Clap)), Dor. 

John French, Dor. 

( Isaac Warner, Hr. 

J d. 1691. 

1 m. 1666. 

I Sar. Bolt-wood, We. 

\ Sam. Wright, Sp. 
) m. 16.5:5. 

( Eliz. Burt, Sp. 

I John Lyman, Hr. 
) b. 1623,' d. 1690. 
( Dorcas Plum, We. 

f Aaron Cook, Wi. 
J b. 1610, d. 1690. 
I loan Denslow, Wi. 
I d. 1(576. 

Jos. Nash, N. H. 



Jona., '49. 
Jona., '51. 
Rebecca '54 
Nath'l, '56. 
Lydia, '.58. 
Philip, '(50. 
Sarah, 
Mary, '66. 
Hannah 
Martha, '68. 



Jona. Ed ward e 
b. 1712. 
m. 1748. 



( Rebe(;ca Smith. 



r N't'l Ed-wards. 
Slain 1724. 
J in. 1719. 

I Hannah French 
[ b. 1697, d. 1761. 

r Sam'l Smitli. 

I b. 1691. d. 17.55-6. 
.> ni. 2nd, 1724. 

I Sarah Billings. 
I b. 1697. 



f Sain'l Edwards. 
.' slain by Indians- 

I Sarah Poineroy. 
See above. 

Sam'l Smith. 



Sani'l Billings, 
b. 1665. 



Alex. Edwards. Sp. 
Wi. 

Chileab Smith, We. 

Sam'l Billings, Hr. 
Sarah Fellows, Hr. 



Ill 



Sous and 
fiimif/iters. 



Amherst 
Foil tillers. 



Sathan, '35 

FJiL'iiL'z.,'41 f Nathan Dickinson. 

1). May 30, 171-.'. 

il. Alia-. 7, 17;)(i. 



Tlianklul Warner. 




m. ind. 
Joanna Leonard. 



m . 3rd . 
Stoplien,'70 (. Judith Hosnier. 

Tuditli. 



l:S;'krpeazer smith. 

Elcazar,-o4 ^>-^'-^- '^'- '^l^' 

IthanKir,'.")t; 

KIcazav, '.58 I 

Sarah, '(iO. ] 

Ktlian, 't)3. 

Aclisah,'(l.i. 

Eleazar, '67 

Justin, '70. 



Lvdia Thomas. 
1). J7-2.5. 



Seth. '7.5. 



Eunice. 

b. 1750. 
Simeon, '52. 
Levi, '53. 
Jiidah, '.56. 
Lois, '58. 
Judah, '.59. 
Asahel, '02. 
Lois, '64. 
.Justus, '65. 
Mary, '67. 
.Jerusha,'70 
.Terusha,'72 



Abigail Hale. 
l- b. 1735, d. 1812. 



f Simeon Clark. 
1). 1720, d. ISOl. 



Reliecca Strong 
■^ b. 1724, d. ISll. 



William, '06 
Tliank'l, '68 

S;irill, '70. 

Kannv, '72. 
Seth, ■■74. ■ 
Sarah. '77. 
Klii>li.B.'79 
Fanny, '81. 



Seth Coleman. 

b. 1740, d. 1816. 

m. 17(i5. 



j Sarah Beecher. 
I- b. 1741, d. 1783. 



Third 
iieiheraiion. 

pjben. Dickinson, 
b. Fel). 2, 16sl. 
d. March, 16, 17.30. 
m. June 27, 1706. 

Han'h Frarv. 
1). March 23^ 1683. 



Dan'l Warner, 
b. 1003. 



.John Smith. 
b. 1684, d. 1761. 

111. cn 



I Esther Colton. 
[ b. 1687. 

Lebanon, Ct. 

r Thomas Hale. 
I b. 1705, d. 1787 
< m. 1734. 

I Abigail Burt. 



Increase Clark. 

b. 1684, d. 1775. 

m. 1710. 

Mary Sheldon, 
b. 1690, d. 1767. 



f N't'l Strong. 
I b. 1698, d 1781. 
1 ni. 1721. 



[ Miriam Sheldon. 
1). 1704, d. 1796. 



f N't'l Coleman. 
1 1). 1709, d. 1792. 
I m. 1739. 



i Mercv Smith. 
[ 1). 1715, d. 1798. 



f Eliph. Beecher. 
I b. 1711, d. 1777. 
I m. 1732. 



1^ Sarah Bradley. 



Second 
Generation. 

i Sam'l Dickinson. 
I 1) Julv 1638. 

{ d. Nov. ,30, 1711. 
I m. Jan. 4, 1668. 
(, Martli' Bridgman 

Eliezer Frary. 

f Dan'l Warner. 

I b. 1666, d. 1754. 
■>, ni. 1688. 

I Mary Hubbard. 
t b. 1669. 



.John Smith, 
b. 1661, d. 1727. 
m. 1683. 

I .Joanna Kellogg. 

I b. 1604. 

f Ephraim Colton. 
1 1). 1648, d. 1713, 
■'. m 2n(l, 1685. 

I Est. Marshfield. 
I b 1667, d. 1714. 



Thomas Hale. 



David Burt. 

f John Clark. 
J b. 1651, d. 1704. 
) Mary Strong. 
[ b. 16.54, d 1738. 
f Isaac Sheldon, 
b. 16)6, d.l7r2. 
\ m. 1685. 

I Sarah Warner. 
1^ b. 1667. 



M't'l Strong, 
b. 1673, d. 17.50. 
m. 1697. 



I Kebec. Stebbin^ 
[ b. 1076, d, 1712. 



f Eben. Sheldon. 
I b. 1678, d. 1755. 
■{ m. 1701. 

] Mary Hunt. 
^ b. 1680. 



First 

Settlers. 

NT Dickinson, We. 



.Jas. Bridgman, Sp. 

See p. 108. 

Dan'l Warner, 

son of Andrew, Hr. 

John Hubbard, 
son of George, We. 



Fhil. Smith, We. 



Jos. Kellogg, F. 



Geo. Colton, Sp. 
Deb. Gardner, Hr. 

S. Marshfield, Sp. 
Catli. Chapin, Sp. 

Thos. Hate, Sp. 
I'risc. Markham, 
dau. of Williaio, Hr 

Nat'l Burt, Sp. 
Rebecca Sikes, Sp. 

Wm. Clark, Dor. 

Jno. Strong, Wl. 
Is. Sheldon Wi. 
M. Woodford, 
dau. of Thomas, Hr. 

Dan'l Warner, Hr. 

f Eben. Strong, Wi. 
I b. 1643, d. 1729, 
■{ m. 1668. 

I Han'h Clapp, Dor. 
t b. 1646. 

f .J. Stebbins, Sp. 
I b. 1626, <1 1679. 
<; m. 16.57. 

I Ab. Bartlett, Hr. 
L d. 1681. 

Is. Sheldon, Wi. 

f Jona. Hunt, Hr. 
J b. 1637, d. 1691. 
I m. 1662. 

t CI. Hosnier, Hr. 



r N't'l Coleman. 
) b. 1684, d. 17.55. 
I ni. 1705. 

I Mary Ely. 

f Chilcal) Smith. 
I b. 1685, d. 1746. 
1 m. 1710. 

L Mercy Golding. 

f Joseph Beecher. 
I b- 1683. 

^ m. 1710. 

^ Sarah Morris. 



f .J. Coleman, We. 
j b. 163.5, d. 1711. 
1 m. 1679. 

L Mehit. Root, Hr. 



Chil. Smith, We. 



Pet. Golding, B. 

Jos. Beecher, N. H. 
b 1645, d. 1712. 

Jos. Morris, N. H. 
B. Winston, N. H. 



112 

B. 

PETITION AGAINST BUILDING TWO MEETING HOUSES. 



[Manuscript copied by Her. ./. H. Temple, and deposited in the Library of Amherst College 
by i\[. F. Dickinson, Jr.] 



14 : G84. Mass. Archives. 

To his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson Esq. Captain General and Governor 
in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New 
England and Vice Admiral of the same. 

To the Hon"' his Majesty's Council and House of Representatives in General 
Court assembled at Boston on the 2G"' day of May A. D. 1773. 

The subscribine Petitioners Iiduibitants of the District of Amherst in the 
County of Hampshire 

Most humbly shew. 

That the District of Amherst contains a Tract of Land nearly equal to 
seven miles in length and three miles in breadth taken together : That in the 
year 1735, a Precinct or Parish was erected there by the name of the Third 
Precinct of lladley, in which town said lands then were. That in the year 1738 
a Meeting House was erected, and in the year 1739 a Minister was settled 
there. That in the year 1759 the same Parish or Precinct was erected into a 
District by the name of Amherst, with some Inhabitants of Hadley Parish 
with their Farms annexed thereto. That your Petitioners ai-e most of them 
Inhabitants of the middle Part of the said District, whose Lands and Estates 
are adjacent to the said Meeting House on each side, and towards each end of 
the District, and that they and their predecessors were the first original set- 
tlers of the Parish of East Hadiey. from which said Amherst Avas erected, 
who bore the principal part of the burden of beginning and bringing forward 
the settlement at first, of building a Meeting House, supporting the Ministry 
and all other charges ; and have continued to bear the greater part of Expenses 
of every kind from the original settlement of the Parish to this day. That 
though they have long held a state of good agreement and harmony among 
themselves, and conducted their affairs both ecclesiastical and civil with 
great unanimity, yet ar{> now in a most unhappy controversy witli the inhab- 
itants of the remote parts of the District respecting theM^nilding a Meeting 
House for Public Worship. That partly by reason of the Inhabitants who 
were admitted from Hadley Parish to be incorporated with Amiierst at their 
own request, and because of their great distance from their own Meeting 
House, partly by reason of tlie increase of settlers in the remoter parts and 
near the two ends of tlie District, and partly by the methods used by the 
opposite party to inultiply liieir votes, by .transferring property from the 
father's List to tlie son's, who tiio' qualified according to the letter of the 
Province Law ought to every e(|uitable purpose to be considered as having 



113 

no property at all : Your retitioners, though owning the greater part of the 
Property within the District, are yet in respect of their number of voters 
become a minor party, and being as they conceive oppressed and likely still 
to be oppressed by the strength of a prevailing majority, and being under 
necessity therefore to seek redress iSc Protection in Legislative Power, hum- 
bly beg leave to open and state their matters of complaint in the following 
manner (viz.) 

That within two years last past the Increase of inhabitants made it needful 
to provide a new Meeting House for Public Worship : That on a motion for 
this purpose, the Inhabitants of the remoter settlements towards each end 
of the District united together in a Design of procuring the District (how- 
ever small in its extent) to be divided into two Districts, so that the extrem- 
ities of the tAvo Districts should be at the present Centre, and your Petition- 
ers on each side of the present Meeting House, to be at the remote or extreme 
parts of the two pi'oposed' Districts. This Proposal was brought before a 
District Meeting holden on the l^"" Day of January A. D. 1772, and though 
opposed by your Petitioners, a vote was then passed for the proposed Divis- 
ion, That from a supposed insufficiency in the proceeding, the same matter 
was again brought before a District Meeting holden the 10"' Day of March 
in the same year : and there being then an equal number of voters on each 
side of the question no vote was passed, That afterwards the Party for the 
Division entered into an agreement for effecting their purpose by procuring 
a Majority for erecting two Meeting Houses at the joint expense of the whole 
District before any Division should be made, or any new District erected, 
and to place them so as to subserve their design of a future Division towards 
the ends of the present, and in the middle of each proposed District, whei*eby 
they apprehended that your Petitioners overpowered by their majority, would 
be finally brought by compulsion to join with them in procuring such a Divis- 
ion, That pursuant to this design a meeting was holden on the li"" day of 
April last past, at which (having previously multiplied their voters in the 
manner above described) they procured a majority for erecting the two 
Meeting Houses : and a vote was accordingly passed. And tho' nothing as 
yet hath been done in pui'suance of said vote, yet your Petitioners ai'e threat- 
ened with the speedy execution of it. All which votes and proceedings, by 
attested copies thereof hei'ewith exhibited will appear. On which state of 
facts your petitioners luunbly beg leave to represent and observe : That the 
whole District of Amherst being of no larger extent than nearly as above set 
forth, cannot admit of. having a new District erected therefrom in the man- 
ner contended for, Avithout effecting the ruin of the whole, as neither of the 
two could be able to support public expenses : That the Division contended 
for is such for which no precedent can be pi'oduced, nor any reason assigned : 
That the very remotest of the Inhabitants have no f urtlier travel to the cen- 
ti-e of Andierst than what is common to many of the Inhabitants of most of 
the ToAvns within the Province. And if any reason could be given for so 
extraordinary a measure, the same must hold and hold much stronger in almost 
every Town and District and produce Divisions and subdivisions throughont 
the whole. That your Petitioner"^ lliiiik it nio'^t injni'ions to themselves to 

k; 



114 

be dictated by an opposite Party in respect to their tenderest rights, and 
especially in matters relating to the "Worship of God. That their opponents 
are unjustly endeavoring to compel them to join in societies wherein they 
have no disposition to join, and many of them to abandon their Parish, Church 
and Minister, to which they are most cordially united; and to be so incorpo- 
rated together in each respective new formed society with those of an adverse 
Party, of opposite sentiments and exasperated mhids : That each of the little, 
weak and already ruined societies must have nothing in prospect but to be if 
possible further ruined by increasing Confusion and Discord among them- 
selves. That your Petitioners having acquired their Estates at a rate propor- 
tionate to the value of their present situation, may not, consistent with jus- 
tice, have such privileges wrested from them. That confiding in the Equity 
of their cause, they would cheerfully have submitted it to the decision of the 
General Court : but that their opponents (either thro' diffidence of the success 
of their cause, or for some other reason to your Petitioners unknown) wlioUy 
declining to make any application to the General Court for a new District to 
l)e erected, have adopted the violent measure of forcing your Petitioners to 
contribute to the expense of the said two Meeting Houses, which purpose if 
executed they consider as a manifest oppression under colour of LaAv, and 
an high abuse of the Power vested in Towns and Districts by the Acts of 
this Province. That the vote whereof your Petitioners complain was pro- 
cured by votei's qualified by unfair means, as above expressed, and that your 
Petitioners having the property of more than half the Estate within the Dis- 
trict, and who must therefore bear the greater part of the expense, the whole 
of which they should esteem to be worse than lost. Your Petitioners fur- 
ther beg leave to represent that during the whole controversy they have 
adopted every pacific measure ; have never used any undue method to multi- 
ply their voters, choosing rather to want a majority tlian to procure it by 
unfair means, And now finding all attempts of Accommodation to be in vain : 
and despairing of justice without the intervention of Legislative Power, 
Your Petitioners most humbly pray the attention of your Excellency and 
Honors to their unhappy situation. And though they are sensible that no 
division of Amherst can be made'without great prejudice to the whole, and 
if left to their own election should be very far from desiring it in any man- 
ner whatever : Yet since the opposite Party seem resolved to please their 
own humor at the expense of your Petitioners' ruin. Your Petitioners most 
hum))ly pray your Excellenc_y and Honors to interpose for their relief, by 
allowing them, whose interests and sentiments are united, to be a corporation 
and Parish by themselves in the middle of Amherst, enjoying all privileges, 
and being liable to all duties of a Parochial nature that are incunihent on the 
District of Amherst, leaving our Opponents their election to remain with us 
on reasonable term.s : or l)e incorporated together among themselves as their 
remote situation will best permit or join to be incorporated with some adjac- 
ent towns or Parishes, as they can obtain consent for admittance there. And 
if the granting your Petitioners prayer herein, should seem to throw their 
opponents into much calamity, which your petitioners by no means desire, if 
it may be avoided : Yet since our opponents which avc now tlie Major Party 



115 



will be content with nothing short of Divisioti and Division to be effected by 
such violent nisans. your Pv'titioners humbly pray your Excellency and Hon- 
ors to make such a Division as will save and protect an injured and innocent 
Party: and snflFer our opponents rather to be ruined alone, than leave them 
the Power of involving your Petitioners Avith them : Oiherwise that your 
Excellency and Honors would provide for our safety by passing an Act or 
Order for depriving the District of Amherst of the power of raising or 
assessing any monies on the Inhabitants for the building of such Meeting 
Houses, or for excusing y'r petitioners from contributing any proportion of 
any Taxes raised for such purpose ; or grant relief to your Petitioners in any 
other Avay or manner as you in y'r great wisdom shall think fit. And for the 
preventing any contention or disturbances that might ai'ise in the District 
between the Parties in the mean time, y'r Petitioners most humlily pray Lhat 
an Order may be passed for staying all proceedings, either in erecting said 
Meeting Houses, or in Demolishing the present Meeting House until the final 
Determination of y'r Excellency & Honors hereon. They also pray that a 
committee of the General Court may be appointed to repair to Amherst, to 
examine into the Matters alledged in this Petition if y'r Excellency & Honors 
think fit : And that all the costs arising by this application may be ordered 
to be paid by the District of Amhei'st. 
And as iu dutj' bound shall pray 



Jr 



John Morton 
Moses Cook 
Jona Dickinson Jr. 
David Blodgett 
Gid Dickinson Jr. 
Reuben CoavIs 
John Billings 
Thomas Hastings 
Samuel Gould 
Moses Warner 
David Smith 
Simeon Clark 
Joseph Bolles 
Hezekiah Howard 
Timothy Clap 
Simeon Peck 
Eben"- Kellogg 
Aaron Warner 
John Field Jr. 
Noah Smith 
Joseph Church 
Noadiah LcAvis 
Silas MatthcAvs 
Timothy Hubbard 

I do hereby certify that the whole Rateable Estate of Anilierst as footed 
by the Assessors on their last List amounts to £7800 : 

And of that sum Avhat belongs to one of the Anabai)list persuasion, and 
others not Inhabitants of Amherst amounts to £202 : 15 

And that the Estate of the aboA^e named Petitioners on the List amounts 
to £4220: 13 

Seth Colenuin 
District Clerk. 



Josiah Channcey 
Simeon Strong 
Jona Dickinson 
Jonathan CoavIs 
John Field 
Nathan Moody 
Alex'r Smith 
Moses Warner 
Daniel Kellogg 
Elisha Ingram 
Nathan Dickinson 
Hezekiah Belding 
W"' Bolt\\(jO(l 
Jona Edwards 
Natiianiel Coleman 
Jonathan Moody 
Gideon Henderson 
Natiri Alex'- Smith 
Jonathan Nasli 
Isaac Goodale 
Elijah Baker 
Solo'" BoltAvood 
Waitstill Hastings 
Nath'l Peck 



Noah Dickinson 
Simeon Pomeroy 
Joseph Dickinson 
David HaAvley 
Thomas Bascom 
Eph'" Kellogg Jr. 
Jonathan Smith 
Jona Nash Jr. 
Martin Smith 
Joel Billings 
Thomas Hastings ■ 
Nathaniel Smith 
Gideon Dickinson 
Barnabas Sal)in 
Edward Elmer 
John Morton Jr. 
David Stockbridge 
Josiah Moody 
Eben'' Dickinson 
Seth Coleman 
John Nash 
Joseph Morton 



11 (5 

At a meeting of the Districl .Ian. 2(i, 1 774 it was " Voted to Choose 
two Agents to Refer a Petition to the General Court to obtain the 
Division of the District," also " to Authorise two Men to Make answer 
to the general Court's Citation in Consequence of a Petition of a 
Number of Inhabitants of Amherst." Choice Avas made of Reuben 
Dickinson and Moses Dickinson to fdl both positions. 

After the hearing the Genei'al Court ordered that a committee con- 
sisting of Artemas Ward Esq. of the Council and Mr. Pickering and 
Col. Bacon of the House " repair to the District of Amherst, view the 
same, hear the parties on the spot, and make report what they think 
proper for the Court to do thereon : and that the Inhabitants of s^ 
District in the -mean time wholly surcease & forbear all proceedings 
relative to the building any new Meeting House or Houses in said 
District." 

Pending further action, there came the agitation over the oppress- 
ions of the Crown, and then the Revolution. It is interesting to 
observe that the very meeting in Amherst which sent tlie "two 
Agents " to Boston to appear before the General Court in behalf of 
dividing the District also chose "a Com'tee of Corrispondence to 
Refer with the Com'tee of Correspondence in the town of Boston," 
and that the same Reuben Dickinson and Moses Dickinson were put on 
this committee with three others none of whom were of the petitioners. 

Plainly the way was open for them to unite with the revolutionary 
party and all the circumstances conspired to promote the union. So, 
too, it became natural for the ]jetitioners to fall into the opposing 
conservative party. 

Until this time Josiah Channcey and Simeon Strong had been more 
prominent in official positions than an}' others in the place. They 
had been Justices of the Peace, — the former since 1758 and the 
latter since 1768; they had l)een Moderators of the District Meet- 
ings, too, and had served often on important committees. But now 
there is a complete change. IMoses Dickinson is made Justice of the 
Peace, and he and Reuben Dickinson appear continually in the most 
important stations, while Channcey and Strong are passed by. 

An exi)lanation of this may be found in the petition. The first 
subscriber to it was Josiah Channcey and the second Simeon Strong. 
There can be no doubt that thi-y were the principal authors of it and 
that their masterly leadership thwarted the scheme of the carefully 
consolidated majority and prevented the division of the town. 



117 

6. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CHURCH AND PARISH. 



The following otlicial docuineiit funiished by .Air. J. \V. Alk'U, Clerk 
of the Second Parish, gives the names of those who were identified 
with that Parish at its origin. 

IN THE YEAK OF OUR LORD 1783. 

AMHERST INCORPORATED. 

CHAP. III. 

An Act for incorporating a Number of the Inliabitants of the Town of 
Amlierst in the County of Hamps/iire, into a separate Parish, by the Name of 
the Second Parisli in the Town of Amherst 

Wliereas a number of the inhabitants of the town of Amherst, in the said 
county, herein-after named, have petitioned this Court to be incorporated 
into a separate pai'ish, for reasons set fortli in the petition 

Tliereforc be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
General Court asseuibled and by the autliority of tlie same. That the said 
petitioners, namely, 

Moses Dicldnson, 

Josepli Eastman, 

Pelatiah Smith 

llezekiah Belding 

John Robins 

Joseph Robins, 

Jolm Ingraliam 

Nathan Perkins. 



Nathan Dickinso)i 
John Diclviuson, 
Timothy Green, 
Noah Dickinson, 
Heni'y Franklin, 
.\bijah Williams, 
Azariah Dickinson, 
Samuel Henry, 
Noah Hawley, 
Oliver Clapp, 
Ebenezer Eastman 
Gideou Moore, 
Thomas Marshall, 
Joseph Dickinson, 
Simeon Cowls, 
Abner Adams, 
Samuel Ingraham, 
Thomas Morton, 



John Billing, 
Ebenezer Mattoon, 
Ebenezer Dickinson, 
Ebenezer Williams, 
Jacob Warner, 
James Merrick second, 
.\ndrew Kimljal 
Noadiah Lewis, 



Ebenezer Dickinson third Joseph Morton. 
Lemuel Moody Giles Churcli, 

Nathan Dickinson junior, Nathaniel Dickinson 2d, 
Stephen Cole, Waitstill Dickinson, 

Amariah Dana, John Eastman, 

David Cowls, David Rich, 

Benannel Leach, Elihu Dickinson, 

Joseph Eastman junior, Reu})en Ingraham, 
Reuben Dickinson, Clement Marsliall, 

Reuben Dickinson junior, Ebenezer Dickinson 2d, 



Ebenezer Mattoon junior, Amos Ayres, 



Justus Williams, 
Jacob Warner, junior. 
Asa Dickinson, 
Eli Putnam, 
David Blodget junior. 



Adam Rice, 
Solomon Dickinson, 
Ebenezer Ingraham. 
Zimri Dickinson, 
Phineas .Vllen. 



Aaron Billing, 
Gideon Lee, 
Levi Dickinson. 
Nathan Perkins junior, 
Joseph Williams, 
Simeon Dickinson. 



118 

and Gad Dickinson together with tlieir estates which tliey now have, or may 
hereafter possess, in tlieir own right, in tlie said town of A7nherst, be, and 
liereby are incorporated into a separate parish by the name of the second 
parish in tlie town of Atnherst. 

Comparing these names with those ou page 115 it will be found 
that eight appear in both lists. These are Italicised above. One 
other name of the former list, that of Gideon Henderson . is found on 
the earliest roll of members of the Second Church. Of these nine 
men, seven had served on the Committees of Correspondence and 
four had been in the arn^y. 

During the Revolution there had been eight Committees of Corres- 
pondence with twenty-nine different members. Nineteen of these are 
named in the above list. There are twenty-four names of this list 
which are to be found in the rolls of soldiers published by Rev. P. 
W. Lyman. In these rolls about one hundred and fifty soldiers in 
all are accredited to Amherst. 

Several prominent ofBcers were in this movement to form the Sec- 
ond Parish. Capt. Reuben Diel\inson, Capt. Ebenezer INIattoon, 
Lieut. Noah Dickinson and Lieut. Joseph Dickinson. Capt. Mattoon 
was especially conspicuous ; the meetings of the Councils were at his 
house, and the final Council was popularly spoken of as Capt. Mat- 
toon's Council.* 

On the side of the Old Church Josiah Chauncey and Suneon Strong 
are conspicuous leaders again. The Committee for the Ordination 
of Mr. Parsons consisted of these two with Setli Coleman : the Com- 
mittee " to treat with the aggrieved Brethren," a little later, of them 
with Dea. Eleazar Smith : and the Committee to make a statement of 
the case of the Church before the subsequent Council, of them with 
Dea. Jonathan Iiidwards. 

The Council called for the Ordination of Mr. Parsons was as 
follows : 

The First Church in Springtield Rev. Robert Breck 
The Church in Sunderland Rev. Joseph Ashley 
" " " Northtteld Rev. John IIubl)ard 
" " " Hadley Rev. Sam'l Hopkins 
" ■• " Greenfield Rev. Roger Newton 

•• Barre Rev. Josiah Dana 
Granbv Rev. Simon Backus 



*An examination of state ))ai)ers by Mr. .Jolin Jameson of Boston coiirtrms Uie view that 
this witlKlravval from tlie old Chnrcli was mainly for political reasons. 



119 

Below are extracts from the Diary of Rev. Enoch Hale of West- 
hampton, copied by Kev. (ieorge Lyman from the original manuscripts 
now in the possession of Rev. Dr. E. E. Hale of Boston. 

"Sep. 30. 1782 Ride to Amherst to Ebenezer Mattoon's to join in rouiieil 
to advise the aggrieved party. 

Eev. Elders Delegates 

Jona. Judd, Moderator Dea. King, S. Hamp. 

Joseph Strong, Scribe. Williaiusburg 

Rufus Wells, Dea. Salmon White, Whateley 

Jos. Lyman, Dea. Elijah Morton. Hattield 

Sol. Williams. Ephm Wright Esq., N. Ilamp. 

Euocli Hale, Dea. Reuben Wright, W. Hamp. 

Oct P' Hear and consult. 
•• 2 Attend ordination of Mr, Parsons. Kev. Breclv preached: Hopkins 
gave charge : Dana prayed first : Hubbard of Northfield prayed to ordain : 
Morton pra.ved last : Backus gave right hand. 

Return to Council, hear and consult till 12 or 1 o'clock. 
Oct. 3. Result and dissolve. 

Oct. 28. To Amherst again in Council. Mr. Sylvester Judd, delegate 
Nov. 11. To Amherst on Council, to Capt. Mattoon's, by adjournment — 
hear parties. 

Nov. 12, Aggrieved party make proposal to ofter Mr. Parsons and his church 
in answer to theirs made them last even, which I drew for the Counnittee 
and which the Council approves, but judge the otter made by the other party 
unequal and insufhcient. Advise the party if their proposal of uniting in the 
choice of a Mutual Council is not complied with in four weeks to proceed to 
organize and settle a uiinister." 

The account in the Records of the First Church is as follows : 

" Many of the members of the chh, left the worship and communion of the 
clnu'ch and formed theuisehes in a distinct society by agreeing among them- 
selves. 

They sent to the church a paper called the Testimony and Representation 
signed by twenty one members of ye church purporting their dissatisfaction. 
. . . These aggrieved, as they styled themselves, presented the church 
with a report of an ex parte council dated Oct. 28, '82 . . which was read at 
a meeting Nov. 10"' and the following votes passed. 

Whether this church will appear before an Ecclesiastical Council, chosen 
by a number of the Brethren who style themselves the aggrieved, at their 
adjournment? Voted in tiie negative. Upon a second question Whether this 
church will unite with the aggrieved Brethren in the (dioice of a mutual coun- 
cil and submit to their decision the matter referred to in llie 'I'estinicny and 
Representation? Voted in the aftirmative. 

Voted, To send tlie aggrieved committee a letter offering to unite witli 
them in ye choice of a mutual council — signed by ye pastor." 

At a meeting Nov. 24'". " Voted, That Simeon Strong Esq. Josiali Cliaiu)- 



]2() 

cey Esq., and Dea, Eleazar Smith be a Com'tee to treat with the aggrieved 
upon the subject of submitting all matter of grievance to a Mutual Council. 
Voted That they present the aggrieved with a letter of Proposals of Sub- 
mission." 

At a meeting Dec. o'"\ " The Com'tee appointed to treat witli the aggrieved 
Brethren presented the church with a letter purporting the aggrieved would 
not agree to the church's proposals of Submission to a Mutual Council. 
Voted That this church will invite an Ecclesiastical Council to look into the 
affairs of the church and give their advice respecting the Brethren who style 
themselves aggrieved. " 

Fifteen churches were iuvited to this council, but only seven were 
represented. Those printed in Italics constituted the council. 

The Cliitrdi in Northfield, Rev John Hubbard. Seth Field Esq. 

'• " " Greenfield. Rev. Roger Neicton. Dea. E. Grave.s 

" " Iladley, Ilev. Sam'l Hopkins 

(iranby, Hev. Simon Backus 

" First Church in Spriiigjield, Rev. Ilobt Brec/c. Mr. Robt Church 
The Church in W. Springfield, liev. Jos. Lathrop 

" " " Suffleld, Eev. Ebenezer Gay. 

" " " East Windsor, Rev. Thos. Potwine 

" " " W. Windsor, N. Parish, Rev Theo. Hinsdale, Cajit. Nathan Ihnjden. 

" Hartfoixl, Rev. Nathan Sti'ong. 
" Barrc, Rev. Josiah Dana, Mr. Nathan ./ennison. 

" " " Rutland, Rev. Jos. Buckmiuster 

" " " Silencer, Rev. Joseph Pope, 

" " " Brookjield, E. Parish, Rev. Nathan Fiskc, Capt. Seth Bannister 

" " " Belchertown, Rev. Justus Forirard, Dea Edtvard Smith 

According to present usage a council composed of a minority of 
the churches invited would not be competent to transact business. 

In this case, however, the council prepared a result, and at a 
meeting of the church Jan. 19, 1783 it was voted to accept the same. 
It recommended the church to " exercise forbearance and condescen- 
sion towards their Brethren who had unwarrantably withdrawn from 
their communion and cordially to receive them upon their return, 
deeming their return a sufficient retraction of their errors." 

It is not clear wherein la}' the particular diflicult}' tliat prevented 
the calling of a nuitual council when both parties seem to have strongly 
desired it. Kemenibeiing, however, that on one side were several 
old army officers and that they had foi- counsellors a number of min- 
isters who had been ardent advocates of the Revolution (among them 
a brother of Nathan Hale the martyr) and that on the other side were 
men who had disbelieved in the devolution from the stait, it may not 



121 

seem strange that they found causes of disagreement on the subject 
at issue. 

Had a mutual council been called it might, perhaps, have healed 
the bitter and painful division. 

From our point of view it would seem that both of the councils, 
that of "the aggrieved" and that of the old Church, made a great 
mistake in not refusing to give other advice than that a competent 
mutual council be called. Nothing can be plainer now than the ina- 
bility of either of these councils, as the}' were constituted, to deal 
effectively with the case in hand and to accomplish what needed to 
be done. In the perspective of a century, however, the aspect of 
things is wholly changed. 



Note. On page 100, tenth line from the bottom, read, " on pcn-t of the same Lot." 

On page 104 adil to Aboi-eviations, linrklt. for Barkhamsteail ; Burns, for Barns- 
table; ^o,r. for Rox bury; IFai. for Watertown. 



STATISTICS OF TtlE CHURCH. 

TABULATED CHIEFLY FROM ANNUAL REPORTS TO THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION. 







Members. 




Admitted. 




Removed. 




Bapt. 







CO 


It 

w ■ 


O 


'A 


O 
« 


H 


►J 

C 


De. 


Dis. 


Ex. 


TOT. 


p 


E- 
•A 
< 

29 



K 

■n 

M 


H 


47 


113 


160 


< 


Ph 


>A 


H 










13 


<n 


1828 




37 


3 


40 


1 


3 








18-29 










9 


6 


15 
















1830 










3 


6 


9 
















1831 










1 


8 


9 
















1833 






173 




93 


7 


100 


6 


4 






24 


15 




1833 










7 


2 


9 
















1834 


84 


143 


327 




2 


7 


9 


1 . 


4 






1 


5 


260 


1X35 










6 


26 


28 
















18315 






205 




i 


4 


5 


1 


11 


I 


13 








1837 


65 


133 


198 




3 


6 


9 


1 


15 


1 








248 


1838 


67 


128 


195 




7 


15 


22 


5 


20 




25 


3 


14 


300 


1839 


89 


183 


272 




63 


36 


99 


6 


16 




22 


18 


34 


300 


1840 










4 


11 


15 
















1841 










4 


11 


15 
















1842 


90 


180 


270 




4 


16 


20 


7 


15 




23 


2 


16 




1843 


92 


185 


277 




15 


12 


27 


9 


9 


1 


19 




9 


250 


1844 


96 


192 


288 




9 


10 


19 


3 


11 




14 








1845 


92 


187 


279 




7 


4 


11 


5 


15 




20 




13 


300 


1846 


105 


221 


326 




.52 


10 


62 


3 


12 




15 


10 


30 


2.50 


1847 


103 


222 


325 




7 


5 


12 


6 


7 




13 




8 


200 


1848 


96 


213 


309 




2 




2 


3 


15 




18 




12 


160 


1849 


95 


205 


300 




1 


5 


6 


3 


12 




15 




9 


200 


1850 


86 


195 


281 






3 


3 


9 


12 


1 


22 




9 


200 


1851 


122 


235 


357 




86 


9 


95 


4 


15 




19 


24 


7 


200 


1853 


121 


229 


3.50 




11 


4 


15 


5 


2 




7 




8 




1853 






336 




•) 


6 


8 
















1854 


116 


231 


.347 






19 


19 


4 


4 




8 




8 


140 


1855 


113 


227 


340 


42 


2 


10 


13 


6 


13 




19 




11 


l.«>0 


1856 


114 


222 


336 


64 


1.3 


6 


19 


8 


4 




12 


3 


2 


150 


1857 


110 


212 


322 


57 


1 


J 2 


13 


8 


16 




24 




7 


236 


1858 


105 


227 


332 


60 


7 


17 


24 


S 


11 




19 




6 


200 


1859 


112 


234 


346 


45 


25 


7 




1 


14 




15 


8 


4 


200 


1860 


89 


212 


301 


27 


9 


10 


19 


6 


23 


27 


56 


4 


3 


310 


1861 


86 


220 


306 


39 


2 


12 


14 


5 


3 




8 


1 


3 


208 


1862 


83 


211 


294 


32 


2 


1 


3 


4 


11 




15 




6 


246 


1863 


77 


212 


289 


33 


I 


3 


4 


5 


4 




9 




4 


273 


1864 


90 


214 


304 


42 


1 


11 


12 


6 


3 




9 




5 


281 


1865 


88 


239 


327 


42 


31 


12 


43 


<; 


12 




18 


7 


6 


175 


1866 


84 


233 


317 


42 


2 


4 


6 


4 


11 


1 


16 




6 


170 


1867 


84 


225 


309 






4 


4 


2 


9 




11 


6 


3 


226 


1868 


91 


244 


335 


17 


14 


19 


33 


4 


3 




7 


7 


2 


2.55 


1869 


80 


242 


322 


36 


4 


16 


20 


4 


10 




14 


2 


3 


250 


1870 


103 


271 


374 


43 


29 


39 


68 


10 


12 




22 


9 


7 


302 


1871 


108 


278 


386 


5i 


6 


21 


27 


10 


5 




15 




8 


279 


1S72 


112 


277 


389 


55 


2 


7 


"9 


8 


6 




14 




6 


225 


1873 


104 


282 


386 


55 


7 


21 


28 


9 


8 




17 


3 


3 


240 


1874 


123 


292 


415 


44 


28 


14 


42 


4 


J7 




21 


11 


4 


280 


1875 


124 


278 


402 


35 


13 


1 


14 


10 


11 




21 


1 


6 


336 


1876 


125 


281 


406 


30 


1 


25 


26 


7 


15 




22 




1 


375 


1877 


123 


278 


401 


(i9 


1 


12 


13 


9 


7 


1 


17 






275 


1878 


113 


260 


373 


70 




3 


^3 


4 


16 




20 




1 


235 


1879 


123 


295 


418 


43 


51 


24 


75 


9 


24 




33 






310 


1880 


128 


294 


422 


47 


7 


25 


32 


10 


12 


6 


28 






300 


1881 


134 


306 


440 


65 


7 


25 


32 


5 


5 


2- 


12 


2 


6 


.342 


1882 


130 


314 


444 


67 


7 


26 


33 


6 


24 




30 


2 


1 


325 


1883 


140 


332 


472 


77 


38 


19 


57 


8 


21 




29 


16 


1 


294 


1884 


121 


306 


427 


.53 




13 


13 


15 


33 




48 




2 


276 


1885 


120 


315 


435 


.54 


19 


24 


43 


7 


28 




35 


2 


3 


333 


1886 


120 


320 


440 


.53 


15 


9 


24 


2 


16 


1 


19 


4 


2 


350 


1887 


125 


322 


447 


66 


13 


17 


30 


7 


16 




23 


6 


3 


316 


1888 


128 


325 


453 


65 


16 


16 


32 


10 


16 




26 


7 


1 


330 


1889 


ISO 


337 


467 


74 


36 


•10 


46 


13 


19 




32 


21 


2 


309 


1890 


127 


318 


445 


58 


4 


9 


13 


'/ 


24 


4 


35 


3 


4 


306 



BENEVOLENT CONTRIBIJTIONS- 



The method of preparing these reports has varied from year to 
year. In some years they are fuller than in others, but necessarily 
they are incomplete always. 



POR YEAR 
ENDING 
JAN'Y 1. 


FOREIGN 
MISSIONS. 


EDUCA- 
TION. 


CHURCH 
BUILDING. 


HOME 
MISSIONS. 


AM. mTs. 
ASSOC. 


^T^rl— • 


TOTAL. 


1866 














. 1.020 


1867. 
186S 




















. 864 
. 1,490 


1869. 
1870 . 
1871 


'. '595! 








. 78 '. 


'. 238! 


'. m'. 


'. ' 97 ! 


'. ' 66 ] 


. 829 
. 1,176 
. 1,025 


1872 


. 284 










103 . 


. 51 . 

. 110. 




1,476 . 
. 156. 


. 1,914 


1873. 
1874 


. 41.5. 








. 40 . 


. .59 . 


. 780 
. 1,137 


1S7.5 . 
1876 . 

1877 


. 278. 
. ■.•6.5 . 
. 484. 
. .514. 
. 7.55 . 
. .597. 
. 305 . 
. 407. 

563. 

464. 
. 633 . 


. 10. 
. 10. 


18 . 
. 30 . 
. 75 . 

'. 37 '. 
. 20 . 
. 31 . 
. 33 . 
. 25 . 
. 8 . 


. 165. 

. 117 . 

170 


'. ' 36 '. 
32 . 


. 31 . 


. 3.57 . 
. 165 . 
. 180 . 


. 8.59 
. 623 
. 941 


1878 




11 

4 


3! 
6. 


. 82. 
. 613 . 
. 335. 
. 603. 
. 413. 
. 301 . 
. 297 . 
. 418 . 


20 . 






. 616 


1879. 
.880. 
1881 
188-2 . 
1883 . 
1884. 
188.5 . 


. 140. 
. 86. 
. 100. 
. 199. 
1.50. 
. 90. 
. 130. 
. 130. 
. 233 . 
. 164. 
. 195. 
. 261 


. 76. 
. .54. 

77 . 
. 20 . 
. 59. 
. 43. 
. 1.55. 
. 60. 
. 43. 

12 . 
. 10. 
. 45. 


. 700. 
. 290. 
. 312 . 
. 110. 
. 610. 
. 200 . 
. 5.55 . 
. 188. 
. 143. 
. 59 . 
. 362. 
. 117. 


. 2,321 
. 1,382 
. 1,428 
. 1,182 
. 1,821 
1,148 
. 1,891 


1886. 
1887. 
1888. 
1889. 
1890. 


. 545. 
. 705 . 
. 843 . 
1.008 . 
. 701. 




6 
5 
11 
19 
69 


0. 

7 . 
8. 
0. 
•2 . 


. 12 . 
. 16 . 
. 25 . 
. 12 . 
. 18 . 


. 6.58 . 
1,033 . 
. 775 . 
. 594 . 
. 792 . 


. 1,6.53 
. 2,230 
. 1,996 
. 2,371 
. 2,626 



^^ 8O.1S03 



